


To Build A Village

by Shatterpath



Series: Pyramid [8]
Category: Reba (TV), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex is a pouty adorable gayby, Alex is the awkwardest lesbian, Cussing, Cute Kids, Eliza is a protective mom, Established Relationship, F/F, Families of Choice, Kara can't get away from being flirted with poor baby, Kara's OTP is Food, Lena deserves all the good things, Lucy has no fucks to give, Maggie is a smartass, Past Abuse, Recovery, Soft Girlfriends, Some privacy brings out TigerCorp's frisky!, Touch-Starved, Women Being Awesome, did I mention cussing?, never cross a redheaded woman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-10-25 17:43:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10769250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shatterpath/pseuds/Shatterpath
Summary: After so much chaos and stress, life eases for our heroes and they can heal and begin exploring all their odd definitions of family in earnest.Takes place Tuesday, December 20th through the 23rd.





	1. Tuesday 12/20/2016, Part 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [theillogicalthinker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/theillogicalthinker/gifts), [Panyan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panyan/gifts), [SinginPrincess (TheOnlySPL)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlySPL/gifts).



> THIS WHOLE STORY WILL BE UNRELENTING FLUFF. You have been warned. Any angst will be relatively minor and in small doses. Honestly, I got most of it out of my system in the last part. I'll cry and beg forgiveness if the Muses run off with me again...
> 
> Reminder: Unlike canon, my version of Alex's apartment has an actual bedroom.

[Morning]

The hospital left behind, the strange little group of them had been happy to retreat to home. 

Home.

They'd bundled Alex off in a wheelchair to Eliza's rental car, swung by Kara's building, and retreated to Alex's chilly apartment that lay still and dark after standing empty for three weeks. 

Tucked against Alex's side-- because of course she stubbornly insisted on walking to her own damn door, thank you-- Lena had been unutterably grateful to step foot once more into the cozy space that felt more like home than anywhere she had even set foot in.

A quiet night of sitting in front of a warm fire while Bug crawled over every square inch of the rooms and the blonde Danvers' made themselves at home had been the most blissful and terrifying hours of Lena's life. The sense of family building up around her was something she just did not know how to handle. 

When Alex had begun drifting off, much to her annoyance, Lena had been overpoweringly relieved to retreat to the small bedroom a behind the scant privacy of the flimsy door. Only then did she feel like she could breathe more easily, tuck her body fully into the one-armed hug immediately offered.

With murmured assurances and adorations, they'd stripped to underwear and settled to the sheets where'd they'd made love all those days ago, before the stress of Maggie's visit and whisking off to Hawaii.

"Love you," Alex murmured sleepily as she nuzzled at Lena's scalp, her whole left arm a loose embrace. It took effort for Lena to not squeeze the bruised body she lay against, and the words crowded her throat, beat against the barrier of her fears.

Morning was a different experience, Lena slowly waking to the blissful feel of her love beside her, her bladder complaining and that peculiar sensation of being watched. The short, choked little scream she let out when she opened her eyes probably scared them equally. 

Bug, who had been sitting beside Alex's damaged arm, left off her intent staring and scrambled away until she fell to the floor with a thud. Lena went the other way even as Alex jerked awake, though at least she didn't fall off the bed.

Alarm vanished with Alex's groan of pain and that brought Kara through the door fast enough that she cracked the frame. She ignored her sister's near-nakedness-- the bedding having been caught up in Lena's retreat-- and took in the scene.

"I've really done this backward," Alex was chuckling suddenly, squirming a little to stretch before reaching out to cup her hand around her alarmed-looking girlfriend's head. "C'mere, you."

Kara ignored them to kneel and smile at Bug, who looked just as unnerved. The child climbed into Kara's embrace just as Lena shuffled back across the bed and pressed herself back to Alex's side.

"I'm really sorry," Alex soothed and pressed kisses to Lena's face. "I hadn't meant this to turn into some terrible Lifetime movie." Her smile was tender and teasing, her tone self-mocking. "Hey Lena, babe, you know how we're kinda going steady? Ummm… I might have acquired a kid? Not sure, she won't let me go. She's like really cute though and kick ass. And she's really smart, like you, and we'll all be a hell of a lot of work and totally worth it, but yeah, sorry about that. Like, we're barely official but I think I just got us a kid…"

Her voice trailed off for a moment as Alex once more fell into those bright green eyes, alight with mirth and adoration and that sharp gleam of fear at the corners. When she picked up the thread of ramble, her voice was intimately soft.

"I know I'm the awkwardest lesbian _ever_ , I mean we've been on, what, like one date? And I blurted out 'I love you' like some sorta desperate Rain Man, but…"

"Two," Lena broke in the mostly playful tirade and wallowed in how Alex blinked those big doe eyes at her.

"Two?"

"Dates. We went dancing in Hawaii."

The slow, shy, filthy smile that blossomed across Alex's face was a glorious thing to behold and warmed Lena from head to toe.

"We did, didn't we?"

"And did we ever make it official?" Oh it was fun to knock her off-kilter. "Because you have to remember that I'm a ruthless business tycoon," Lena got a droll look for that one, "and I'm all about the details."

Alex was clearly wracking her memories for an answer, but was immediately brought back to full attention to her lover with elegant fingers on her chin, tracing her lower lip.

"Let me ask this time. Alexandra Danvers, will you be my girlfriend and partner, exclusively and for as long as we can make this work?"

Beaming like the lovesick idiot she was, Alex tightened her loose embrace, kissing her love deeply and murmuring. "Yes."

"Good. It goes both ways, I assure you. Now, maybe you should actually introduce me to your new kid. Oh, and your mother too, I suppose."

Alex had the grace to look supremely embarrassed while Kara just laughed.

 

[Morning, continued]

While not entirely certain how the handsome Director Johns had swung their being able to pull an overnighter, Reba had no complaints. Still with her eyes loosely covered to reduce strain on her bruised brain, Susan rested more easily with a hand in hers, mother and daughter alternating being that anchoring touch. She was still too quiet and disoriented to be herself, and it was worrying even as the hospital staff remained reassuring.

There was a sudden ruckus outside and the door swung open to reveal a small, compact woman who stalked in like she was on a life or death mission. The fellow behind her, dragging a laden cart, was laid back in comparison. Both were dressed in identical blacks that looked familiar.

"Vas, you're either catting around or you should explain yourself," the stranger said in a teasing tone.

Startling faintly, Susan made a happy sound and muttered, "Lucy…"

Grinning briefly, she stalked over and thrust a hand at Reba. "Lucy Lane, FBI. Until the traitor left me, Susan and I were coworkers."

"Pfft," Susan rumbled a weak objection. "You just miss having me to boss around."

"Damn right I do."

Assured that the younger women knew each other, Reba introduced herself and watched the shrewd green gaze. "Her almost mother in law."

The dry tone earned a short huff of laughter from the spitfire and a firm shake. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am." For all of her flash upon entry, this Lucy was now military-formal, nodding her head at the door. "Now, if you'll forgive the cloak and dagger routine, I'm not, strictly speaking, supposed to be here, doing this."

Amused and consternated, Reba merely tightened her grip on Susan's hand. "And?"

Once again Lucy smiled and softened. "And how about you guard the door? I've got her."

"It's okay, Reba," Susan explained softly and gave the hand in hers a little squeeze. "She's a friend and I'm pretty sure I know why she's here." The technician pulled a wand on a cable from the bulky casing and touched something that made it hum to life. "And by the sound of it, that's exactly what I thought it was."

"All right, honey. I'll be just over there at the door."

Susan smiled at the warm kiss Reba pressed between her brows before giving Lucy a long, significant look and retreating. From her post at the door, she split her attention between the goings on in the room and the hallway outside.

"I didn't think I was going to get the five star treatment."

At Susan's kidding tone, Lucy snorted as she shifted to let the technician wave the innocuous-looking wand over the prone body in the bed. He glanced back and forth between patient and device while Lucy sassed, "please. The only reason J'onn isn't here himself is that your russet tigers haven't let up on their vigil for a second. I, on the other hand, have no fucks to give."

Susan's low laugh sounded more relaxed already and Reba simply refused to acknowledge the faint waves of fog-light glow that drifted off of the wand to vanish through cloth and flesh.

"There, better already," Lucy soothed as Susan let out a deep, gusty breath like a heavy sigh she had been holding for days. "You gotta stop wrestling bears."

"Asshole," Susan snarked back. "I still can't believe I got taken out so easily."

"Yeah, well you should see the other guy. You owe M'gann a drink, by the way. Man, I wish I'd seen that beat down. My captive pet Martian isn't so friendly."

"I'll happily owe her a night on the town if she was the one that stopped that thing."

"Yup, and Supergirl herself dragged your carcass away."

"That's both awesome and humiliating."

"Oh shut up, drama queen. You are now in a very exclusive club who have gotten their sorry asses saved by our local super-powered studmuffin."

Reba was distracted by the return of a still-haggard Kyra, freshly showered and in clean clothes after visiting a nearby hotel room for just that purpose. "Mom?" She asked in confusion and Reba merely wrapped a quick arm around her and gestured into the room. With the reflexes of a hungry weasel, Lucy's attention snapped over, eyes narrowed and shrewd before she lit up and smiled. With quick, aggressive steps, she walked over and offered a hand.

"Kyra, right? I've been wanting to meet you forever."

"You're Lucy, I recognize your voice. A pleasure."

After another of those brisk, firm handshakes, Lucy kindly escorted Kyra into the room, no sign of her earlier sass present. Reba was amused by the mercurial woman.

"So, if you'll be kind enough to pretend you didn't see any of this," Lucy said easily despite the intimation that her bringing the odd device and its technician could get her into a lot of trouble, "it's guaranteed to make Susan heal much faster. While I don't really understand how it works, I know it stimulates healthy cell regeneration and works miracles on swelling in particular."

Kyra nodded along as she wrapped up Susan's left hand in her own, thrilled that the squeeze back was already stronger. Pinning Lucy with a serious and grateful look, she nodded along. "If it does anything to alleviate this one's suffering, I'm absolutely fine with your never being here at all."

Nodding, Lucy helped the tech tuck away the wand and straighten the device's cover. "Ladies, it's been a pleasure." She patted Susan's arm and her wisp of smile was reflected in her voice. "Get better, faker, and don't forget that your metabolism will be kicked up for a few days. It's already been put in your charts along with the hack that got me in here in the first place. Later."

And with that, the black-clad duo were gone as quickly as they arrived and Susan chuckled. "So now you've met Hurricane Lucy."

Leaning over to kiss her fiancé sweetly, Kyra had to tease, "after meeting her and the Danvers and their pet Luthor, I think I get more why my crazy family doesn't faze you."

Susan merely smiled and basked in the touch of her love and the relief of beginning to feel better.


	2. Tuesday, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In clearing out the pantry off the nicely-appointed if dated kitchen, Kara found herself struck by a realization. Right on the other side of the surprisingly flimsy wall was the weird little dead-end hallway off of her bedroom that was only useful as an awkwardly-proportioned closet. Edna had said once that the two apartments had been one, many years ago.

[Afternoon]

Kara did not like change. Too much of it had taken too much from her. But change was as inevitable as the passage of time.

And today she was taking control over at least one small part of it.

Edna Needleberg had been an odd character from the day Kara had met her while helping Alex move in next door. Tiny, feisty and full of stories, she had always fascinated Kara. Even Alex at her hot mess worst had appreciated the elderly woman and her sassy tolerance for her erstwhile neighbor. 

Turning the key in 4B's deadbolt, Kara took a deep breath and twisted the doorknob to step into the familiar space. She'd been here so many times, sometimes about building business and sometimes just to spend time with a friend, having tea or a glass of wine, tasting odd dishes that Edna had been so happy to have a hearty appetite to feed again. The creaking, cold emptiness of the apartment made Kara sob suddenly, her eyes awash with tears.

For a long moment, she allowed herself to wallow in losing yet someone else, but then breathed deep. Edna had lived a full, colorful life and passed quietly at an advanced age. There was a positivity to that and Kara took heart. Edna would want her to chin up and take good care of the only thing she could leave behind.

And taking care of this wonderful old building started with taking care of this empty tomb of an apartment.

Even with super speed-- which Kara let loose behind the firmly closed door-- it took hours to sort out the place. Anything not obviously trash was bagged and boxed and set into piles to be carted off or be dealt with later. Then, she scrubbed. Kara scrubbed like a priest would perform an exorcism, clearing the way for the future.

In clearing out the pantry off the nicely-appointed if dated kitchen, Kara found herself struck by a realization. Right on the other side of the surprisingly flimsy wall was the weird little dead-end hallway off of her bedroom that was only useful as an awkwardly-proportioned closet. Edna had said once that the two apartments had been one, many years ago.

That was how she found herself with the half-baked idea that the walking wounded might be better off in one place where they could be tended to without being scattered. After all, those not busted up had jobs and lives they had to get back to! And where were the Mutates even staying long-term? Certainly, Alex's little place was barely big enough for two much less four, and certainly not for a small, active child. Those ghostly white twins had been very attached to Maggie and then trailed around after Lucy, so that was a good place to start.

Lucy picked up on the second ring. "Hey, Kara, good to hear from you."

"Hi Lucy. I was wondering something. Do you know what happened to the Mutate twins? I lost track of them in the chaos."

"Sure thing. They've decided Maggie is their person and good luck peeling them off her. Bet they're getting cabin fever in that basement mouse hole Maggie calls an apartment. I can text you the address and phone number."

"That would be great, thanks, Lucy."

"Just do me a favor, huh? If you make a housecall, can you stop by that bar she rambles on about first? None of us are decent cooks and she's been mooning over some hot chef there."

"Uh, sure."

After a quick shower and an internal debate over approaching as Kara or Supergirl, she went with the suit. Not only was transportation faster, but the two Mutates had only met her in her superhero guise. Flying in the rain was no fun, but there was nothing to be done for it and soon she was alighting to the alley. Before she could even take an x-ray peek, the door banged open and M'gann startled at her unexpected presence.

It hurt that she looked so wary, but Kara couldn't blame her after being locked up for so long by the DEO.

"I was looking for Maggie's chef friend."

Keeping the query gentle earned Kara a bit of ease in the disguised White Martian and she nodded. "Around the corner, blue door. Just follow your nose."

Knowing a dismissal when she heard it made Kara stifle down a sad sigh. She wanted this woman as a friend, not an enemy! But they would all need time to heal.

"Hey," M'gann suddenly called out, making Kara pause and look back. "How is Maggie doing? And the others?"

It was a small concession, a reaching out that Kara hadn't expected. "I'll let you know after I do the rounds, if that's okay?"

"That… that would be welcome, thank you."

It was a shred of connection that gave Kara hope, and she continued on her way with a lighter heart.

Knocking politely at the blue door, Kara waited patiently, sneaking a peek with her x-ray vision to see a tall woman in an elaborate kitchen. As if the wisps of smells sneaking out weren't a dead giveaway, and what smells they were, making her ever-hungry belly grumble. 

It took a couple minutes before the door swung inward and Kara smiled winningly at the nonplussed stranger standing there. She was tall and statuesque with dark hair and strikingly yellow eyes like a wolf's. A true yellow-gold unlike Bug's coppery-gold gaze. They were unusual, but this was a hub of the alien community in National City, so not that unusual. 

"Hello, I'm a friend of Maggie Sawyer's. She has been wounded in the line of duty and I hear she's been talking about your cooking." Sucking in a deep lungful of deliciously scented air, Kara almost drooled. "By the smell of things, I can understand why."

The woman crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "You're Supergirl."

"I am."

"Huh." After marveling for a moment, she shrugged. "Michael LaMagne. A pleasure. Come in."

Oddly no handshake was offered, but Kara didn't allow it to bother her. Particularly as she was so completely distracted by all the smells. Without even asking, Michael had pulled out new hardware, dry goods and a pitcher of beer from a tap and other barely comprehensible things. When a tray of glistening fish fillets made an appearance, Michael paused.

"How many am I feeding?"

"Uh, she has some friends staying with her while she recovers, so, four?"

Suddenly, Michael gentled and a wry little smile danced at the corner of her mouth. "Are you hungry?"

"Truthfully? I'm always hungry. The drawback of superpowers."

Kara was pleased to have drawn a rolling chuckle and even more pleased that the tray of fish remained out and Michael added more to her supplies. It turned out she was making fish and chips and Kara watched the process in fascination. While freshly frenched potatoes hissed and bubbled in hot oil, Michael rifled through the industrial refrigerator behind her and came up with a large catering dish. She deposited that on the raised counter that separated her workspace from the rest of the dimly lit warehouse along with a big bowl of Christmas-shaped sugar cookies.

"The rejects from a job and cabbage rolls that need a home," Michael explained and produced a spoon from her apron pocket. She was so stunned by the speed in which the cabbage rolls began vanishing that she overcooked the first batch of fries.

"I'll eat them," Kara assured her. "They smell great."

Still baffled, Michael just went with it and dumped the batch onto absorbent paper to hand over. Fresh out of three hundred and fifty degree oil, Kara didn't even hesitate to dig in, humming happily.

By the time there were enough fries and fish to feed the offensive line of a college football team, Kara had polished off the significant quantity of leftovers and was lazily eyeing the shapes of the few rejected sugar cookies she hadn't gorged on.

"Thank you, chef. It's rare that my appetite quiets for a time. Do you cater?"

That earned Michael's rumbling chuckle again. "For that appetite? You would keep me in business for certain."

Laden down with an armload of warm, delicious-smelling cardboard box, Kara handed over a one hundred dollar pre-paid credit card and thanked the chef for the meals before stepping outside and taking for the skies. It felt good to have some of the exhaustion she couldn't seem to shake soothed by good, solid food. It was never easy to truly sate that constant ache.

Wary as always of the intermittent helicopter traffic around the city, Kara hovered beside a taller building and pulled out her mobile from its pocket in her boot.

"Hello, Supergirl," Lena greeted her warmly, recognizing the number as the alter-ego's.

"Hi Lena, I was just checking in on you guys."

"We were just going to settle in for a nap."

"Again?"

Lena laughed, a warm, rich sound. "Before joining all of you in the hospital, the last decent sleep I had was that air mattress at the… FBI." Her sardonic tone reflected her amusement at the verbal cloak and dagger routine. "And my passing out at my desk after breaking down doesn't count. Thank you again for coming for me."

"Hey, what is family for?"

"I still love the sound of that. Family." Lena's voice was soft with that touch of wistful that might never leave her. Kara understood that all too well. Determined to keep her feeling of well-being, she shook it off.

"Hey, speaking of which, Christmas is in only five days."

"Shit, you're right… Where have the days gone, huh?"

"Isn't that the truth. We should get everyone together. Edna's place is all cleaned up and I'm already planning on taking out the wall that separates my place from it."

"Taking out the wall?"

Now it was Kara's turn to be sardonic, weaving lazily around buildings and other obstacles as she made her way across the city. "Gently, Lena, gently. I promise, there will be no superpowering through walls. In fact, will you soften up Alex for me? We're too crowded in her place and there's plenty of space at the building now."

"That sounds like a good plan."

"I'm going to do the same to Maggie and Susan. Having our wounded in one place will make them easier to care for and cabin fever will set in less quickly. We can decorate around them I suppose."

"Might I make a suggestion?" Lena asked gently and Kara loved that care in her voice. There was a reason she had taken this unusual woman as her friend.

"Please."

"I have an excellent relationship with the best event planner in the city. Very exclusive. I'll text you the information. You tell them what you want and cost is no option. I'll foot it, no argument."

Kara knew that tone from working for Cat for so long. She never had gotten used to the stab of misery from the absence of her missing loved ones and swallowed down that scarring sadness with unfortunately studied practice. 

"Okay."

"That's it, just okay?"

"Lena, I know how to pick my battles. I worked for Cat Grant for how long?"

Oh how she enjoyed that unfettered laugh, knowing how rare it once was.


	3. Tuesday, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shan's smile was gentle and she shifted her grip to Kara's wrists and brought those impossibly, shatteringly strong hands up to place them gently on her own cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In all the years I have had the twins in my head, and involving them in now TWO sagas based in the DC-universes, I have never drawn or even sketched them. For shame!

[Afternoon]

One thing Maggie hadn't expected was how charming and funny her new companions were. The twins had spent the first evening sniffing over every square inch of Maggie's claustrophobic little place and finding a hidey hole under her small table where they curled up in a pale pile to sleep.

Today, they'd taken to scrubbing the place from top to bottom while Maggie just watched on, bemused by the whole thing. They were finding odds and ends of her life she barely remembered. They would often lapse into an easy quiet, barely needing words between them, but were quick to answer questions when Maggie asked.

They were a little wolf and gorilla and a lot of cougar and monkey, the latter being obvious in those tails. The things never stopped moving, twitching and wafting as though there was a light breeze. They'd tried to explain that there was a massive nerve cluster that was basically a small brain at the base of the tails that did much to control the appendage, but Maggie was laughing too hard over 'having your brain in your crotch'. 

They'd been escaping and getting recaptured for years, so their social skills were decent and they were familiar with the real world. Other people had befriended them in the past and they planned to renew those connections, but were content with Maggie for the time being. 

It was a strange bond she had forged with the two oddballs, but it felt true. No matter that they were unusual as hell. Maggie had always liked oddballs. She'd seen them at their animal worst, snarling and deadly; six feet of inhumanly fast and strong killing machine times two. Even with teeth and claws that could rip someone to pieces, she felt no fear around them. She knew people, and these two were just that, people. No matter that they had fur and tails and a really fucked up backstory, they had emotions and conflicts and desires just like anyone else with higher thinking. 

It was pretty obvious she was never going to be rid of them and that was a reassurance Maggie would have never expected.

And having all that bristly protective menace between her and whoever was knocking on her door was a nice reassurance too.

"Detective Sawyer?"

Was that Kara? When she nodded that it was okay, Ro went and opened the door, revealing Supergirl. Ah, so she was on the job then. Maggie was fine playing along, because she fully understood wanting privacy and as much safety as possible for loved ones. For that, Maggie was more than happy to keep Kara's secret.

"Oh…" Kara breathed quietly as she stared up at Ro. "Wow, you are really… tall."

Even barely able to see Ro's profile, Maggie could seen the grin that revealed those terrifying teeth. Twice a thick as any Human tooth and protruding nearly an inch past their fellows, the gorilla-like fangs were striking. Maggie how no idea how they fit into Ro and Shan's mouths, much less how the pair talked around them.

"I take it you weren't introduced?" Maggie teased, but was distracted by the way the twins were scenting at the air. Then the smells hit her too and her stomach whined like a dog locked out in the Nebraska snow. "Oh, what is that?"

Shaking herself out, Supergirl picked up an armload-sized cardboard box Maggie hadn't even noticed.

"Delivery, courtesy of Chef Michael."

"Oh my god, I love you."

Startled, then amused, Kara paused for a moment before striding in and setting the box on the small dining table. "Lucy gave me a call and said you might like the treat and I wanted to see how all of you were doing anyway."

All three of the inhabitants were startled and pleased. The slightly burlier of the twin sisters held out her clawed hand and Kara didn't hesitate to accept the gesture. "Rowan, but Ro is fine. My sister is Killashandra."

"Shan," she added, pausing in gathering up containers of fish and chips to also shake hands. "A friend gifted us names from her favorite author's books. She said Seventeen A and Seventeen B were no kind of names at all."

"We agreed," Ro chimed in as Shan stepped away to set a meal box in Maggie's grabby hands.

Kara had noticed the demeaning number and barcode tattooed into Bug's ear and similar adorned the twins, even more obvious against their paleness. The haze of fine fur had been permanently lasered away from the pale pink flesh in a neat, rectangular strip that fit the geometric shapes of the ink in their skins.

"Michael made this for me when I swung by the bar and triggered off the crap-valanche that got you two rescued," Maggie chattered gleefully as she popped open the heavy paper clamshell and breathed in deeply. "Oh, and it's still hot. Remind me to get you two over there somehow, because it would be an excellent contact point, and you'd fit right in."

"The bar caters to aliens," Kara supplied helpfully when she noticed the twin's curious puzzlement. "We know that you aren't aliens, but your appearance is… notable."

"Notable," Shan scoffed gleefully around a mouthful of fried fish, but it was clearly pretty hot and she set it aside, waving at her face. With a bit of giggling from the trio, she managed to get the bite down and turned her attention to Kara, standing there with her body language torn between the tough persona the suit represented and the curious young woman underneath.

Hopping up, Shan skirted the coffee table in the cramped space and stood just inside the unspoken boundary of Kara's personal space. 

"Curious? I sure am. I've never been this close to an alien before."

Baffled at the comment, Kara was silent, but her expression said it all. She almost jumped when Shan raised her hands between them, loose and palms up. After a moment, Kara instinctually raised her own hands and placed them gently against those palms, colored only with the hot blood beneath Shan's skin.

"You're warm," Kara noted and almost blushed. "I mean, of course you're warm, just… warmer than I expected."

"Our resting body temperature is just a hair under one hundred degrees. And you're warmer too, because you don't feel as cool to the touch as a Human."

Shan gently closed her grip, curling her blunt claws along Kara's palms and pressing the pads of her thumbs against the back of the Kryptonian's hands.

"Extraordinary. Even with my senses as acute as they are, I would be hard pressed to know that you are anything but part of the sea of humanity."

"And yet, you're the Human one."

"And a bit of extra, yes."

The strangers smiled at one another, still touching at their sensitive hands.

"This is nice," Kara blurted out and looked embarrassed even as Shan tilted her head inquiringly. "Just this… touching. It so uncommon here, and I've never completely gotten used to it."

Shan's smile was gentle and she shifted her grip to Kara's wrists and brought those impossibly, shatteringly strong hands up to place them gently on her own cheeks.

"Oh… you really are soft."

With half a lifetime of living among a people who didn't do much casual touching, the feel of this stranger's cheeks and jaw was a strange and wonderful intimacy. And then the most extraordinary, soft rumble echoed up through Shan's bones as she began… to purr.

Animals had always been a mixed blessing for Kara, for they were even smaller and more fragile than the Humans she lived among. And some of them forever remained wary of her, as though sensing she was 'other'. But she had felt this sound a few times and this giant-sized version brought a thrilled grin to her face and she automatically shifted to rub behind those long, slightly cupped ears. Grinning, Shan reached up and pressed her fingertips along Kara's hairline, her thumb between her blue eyes. In a long sweep, she caressed over brow and cheek to echo the little embrace of hand to ear.

Then she leaned in and touched foreheads.

"There. Now we're friends."

"Friends. Thank you, Shan."

"My pleasure, Supergirl."


	4. Tuesday, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That soft smile was positively smitten now, and Lena paused to press a soft kiss between Alex's brows. When her voice came again, it was even softer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has been a long time coming for Lena as well as all of us who have been along on this journey.

[Late evening]

Eliza was still puzzled by the couple, but there was no denying the changes in her daughter. Their cuddling at the hospital had been no anomaly, for they gravitated together like opposite polarities. 

Off and on, Eliza had been glancing away from her laptop to watch them silhouetted against the cheery fireplace. Lena had pulled the big back cushion around to pad herself against the armrest where she sat sideways. Alex was resting against her, that right arm cradled by Lena's knee and a throw pillow. They spoke softly here and there, and their touches were gentle and reverent.

Silence had fallen some time ago and that prodded Eliza to stand up and stretch her back out. Padding over she took in the sweet sight of her lone biological child, perfectly relaxed and sound asleep in her lover's embrace. Lena watched the older woman with that same wariness, an aching vulnerability etched into her features.

But her hands remained perfectly gentle and comforting against Alex.

Unable to stop from fussing a bit, Eliza grabbed the soft throw on the back of the couch and tossed it lightly over Alex legs before sitting and warming socked toes with her own body heat. She was the link between the strangers in the room and Eliza knew she would have to make the first move. So she fiddled with the edge of the blanket and spoke quietly.

"So how did you two meet?"

Her tone more than the question smoothed out some of Lena's wariness and that easing translated to Alex, who murmured and tucked her nose more securely to Lena's neck.

"Umm, Kara invited me over to game night."

Eliza opened her mouth to continue, but closed it when Lena began to ramble.

"Well not exactly. An assassin took a shot at me-- well, he tried anyway-- during the renaming ceremony of L-Corp, after the explosions, which he was clearly using as cover, that and a police uniform. I found myself looking down the barrel of a pistol and a body came flying out of nowhere, knocking his arm aside so the shot went wild, and I didn't catch most of the brawl, but it was chaos, with people everywhere and I spotted a gun that later turned out to be Alex's and saw that he had her in a headlock and Supergirl was there but could she be quick enough? When the assassin shifted her aside, I fired with no hesitation."

She was nearly trembling with the effort of disgorging all the words, her composure rattled even as she struggled to remain calm and gentle for her sleeping lover. Eliza had to wonder if Lena had ever articulated any of this out loud before and decided to hold her tongue and see what else might come. Lost in the memories now, Lena pet Alex's face and hair as her dramatic mouth tipped up in a slight smile.

"Much later, Kara had interviewed me several times and I really liked her and I had to get in touch with Supergirl for an ambush so I went to her apartment and was so shocked to see my unexpected hero standing there, looking wary and a little uncomfortable. Oh, I remembered her and I think I said something along those lines, I don't honestly recall. But we were introduced and… she lingered in the back of my mind.

"So, at game night, she was quick and funny and witty and smarter than everyone in the room, and that's a damn smart bunch, and there was, is an… intensity to her that was unmistakable. She's so clearly one of those magnificent souls that somehow turns her pain into strength. She's amazing. So we bumped into each other on the roof and she's very charismatic and intense and being that focus of that was… is intoxicating. So, I couldn't stop myself from flirting and was so pleased when it worked."

That soft smile was positively smitten now, and Lena paused to press a soft kiss between Alex's brows. When her voice came again, it was even softer.

"I deal with powerful, charismatic people pretty much on the daily, but it's rare that there's any personal connection. Alex, and Kara first, made me feel like I mean something to them. Honestly, looking back? I never stood a chance, not from that first time on the roof, when I was sole focus of her, so intense and hungry."

The faintly embarrassed look Lena flashed her made Eliza chuckle gently. Yep, she had definitely not articulated most of this. When Eliza spoke it was gentle and matter-of-fact. "She's been like that from the start. Charismatic and intense, wanting to charge into every experience head first, grab it with both hands, get at the marrow even if she had to chew it out with her own teeth. And yet, she is so effortlessly compelling, even as she never seems to notice that."

Lena was fascinated by the words, her glance flickering from mother to daughter and back. As though sensing the stare, Alex stirred, but immediately relaxed into her lover's touch. Quiet reigned for a bit as they waited for her to settle into true sleep once more. When Eliza picked up her narrative again, her voice was even quieter.

"When Kara came to us, I was terrified, not by what she could do, but how the girls would connect. Thankfully, she settled that wild something in Alex, gave her focus and anchored them both."

Eliza looked shrewdly at the unexpected paramour of her Alex and was heartened that Lena no longer seemed so intimidated. Good.

"The way she looks at you, I've never seen that before. Oh, I've always wanted that for her, that rush of emotion, that bond to another person. She has so much love to give."

Lena's little smile that she half hid by nuzzling into Alex hair was soft and sweet. 

It said so much.


	5. Wednesday 12/21/2016, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was very pretty, with shiny hair, an energetically lean physique and smelled like violets and french fries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Kara gets to make a new friend in this chapter! Who better to fill the role than an old friend modified to fit this 'verse?
> 
> And if she's flirting? I'll never tell…

[Evening]

Wednesday morning, Kara hauled out the trash and donateables to the freight elevator to be sorted out before heading to her terribly neglected job. Which she was grateful to still have. By laying low and keeping to her edits and research, she stayed under Snapper's radar and slipped away at the end of the workday. 

Good thing too, because she was short on time and ever so grateful to be able to fly. Two quick changes and a short flight later, Kara was racing down the echoing concrete steps to the ground floor, keeping an ear out for anyone else. Down the wide hallway she rushed, past the built in mailboxes and freight elevator and out the heavy glass front door. Thankfully a glance at her watch reassured Kara that she was right on time. Unfortunately, the planner was running late, but after a few minutes, a car pulled up and the window rolled down. 

"Excuse me, are you Kara Danvers?"

"Yes. Are you Miriam Fry?"

"I'm afraid not, but I'm one of her employees."

Then car fell silent and a young woman climbed out and smiled winningly as she approached with an extended hand.

"Angie Martinelli. So pleased to meet you."

"Likewise. Come inside?"

She was very pretty, with shiny hair, an energetically lean physique and smelled like violets and french fries. 

"Thank you. This is a gorgeous building. Though I confess I'm glad you met me at the door. You look like you can take care of yourself."

"It's not the best neighborhood," Kara agreed easily, "but I'm hoping to change that."

Just a few steps down the echoing hall, Kara paused and eyeballed the doors flanking on either side. They were built into inserts that were clearly once much larger openings, and the wood needed painting.

"Are you up for an adventure?" she asked and the pretty stranger chuckled.

"It depends on what you mean by an adventure."

Was she being teased? Unsure of herself, Kara pulled out the ring of keys she had carefully assembled from Edna's things. "I'm the new owner, well my sister and I are anyway, and I haven't looked at these spaces. My friend that left us the building told me they're rental industrial areas, but they're empty."

Behind a deadbolt and a creaky door lay dimness, the space large and echoing. A blast of a very organic funk blasted out and both women recoiled. It wasn't stomach-churning exactly, but it was definitely unpleasant.

"Whew," Angie laughed as she stepped away and Kara slammed the door and locked it once more. "I haven't smelled a stink like that since my Uncle Vito had some homemade beer bottles blow up in his garage. Maybe the other door will have better luck? But I'll hang back here this time."

"Fair enough. So, behind door number two…"

Again, it was a big space, even larger than her sprawling apartment, and thankfully smelled only of dust and neglect. Another fiddle of keys at a lockbox exposed power switches that Kara flipped as her new companion peered around the doorframe. 

"This is a nice space," Angie admired where she hovered in the doorway. "And those ceilings! That has to be a good twenty feet. No bathrooms though."

"I spotted those through the stink on the other side."

"Okay. How many guests are you anticipating?"

"Anywhere between a dozen and a hundred." Angie's exasperation was cute and Kara chuckled before finishing her thought. "Let's aim high. One hundred."

"Good. Do you have a plan for refreshments? Because I have to warn you, that will be the hardest part to cover with this short notice."

"I'm lucky there and have a chef and bartender lined up."

Apparently deciding it was safe to come in, Angie paced over to Kara's side with the sharp click of heels on concrete. "Then you're steps ahead already. Did you have anything in mind for your event?"

Kara took a deep breath and let the most recent days of her tumultuous life wash over her. Unconsciously, she closed her eyes and tilted her head back as though she could feel the yellow sunlight that had changed her so.

"I have a lot of family and friends that this is all we have. Or at least it feels that way. And things have been rough lately, but a lot of good has happened too."

Her melancholy smile spoke volumes and when Kara opened her eyes and looked over, Angie's eyes were soft and understanding. "I do my best work when it's personal, so this should be a good match. Let me make a call real quick, hmm?"

While she did that, Kara paced out the space, fighting the urge to drift up to the shadowy spaces behind the big, industrial lights. Though she had heard every word of Angie's phone call, Kara nodded when informed there would be a crew of industrial cleaners in at nine the next morning. "That will be a good start. Now how about you and I work out some details so I can line crews up. What sort of overall feel are you going for?"

That was an easy one. "We're an informal bunch, so I'm more interested in places to sit and socialize, thought it will be a pain for Susan and Maggie especially."

"Meaning?"

"We have some not-really-walking wounded in our numbers right now. Maggie has a broken leg and Susan looks like she was mauled by a bear."

As much as Angie was really curious, she let it go. "I can accommodate that," she reassured with a wave of a hand and cast a critical eye over the space, pointing things out as they came to her. "Since the central pillar is a natural barrier, how about I have a deck built in that corner with shallow steps and a ramp? We can put down a good, comfortable indoor/outdoor carpet and I'll rent a bunch of comfortable couches and sturdy tables as well as chairs that can be moved around as your guests see fit."

Angie paced out the largest corner, away from the big loading door and the forty-five degree angle wall that was the corner of the building.

"We'll mute those big lights up there with some draping fabric and bring in some more intimate lighting to encourage conversation. With a big notch taken out of the deck here, there will be plenty of room to move around the pillar for good circulation. It really is an ugly pillar, isn't it?"

That made Kara laugh and shrug, for she had gotten used to the eight-sided concrete tree trunks. Though admittedly, the pillars in her apartment were built into walls. And these ground floor supports were much larger, easily a meter thick.

"What if we mocked it up to be the Christmas tree?"

Angie blinked and looked at the eyesore, picturing the change in her mind. "That's a great idea! I can get my hands on miles of garland and we can make a decent tree shape out of it. I'll have to pick up more decorations for something of this scale though."

"What if my guests brought them? Y'know, to get them involved?"

She really did have a nice smile, Kara noted when Angie beamed at her. "I think that's a lovely idea. Tell you what, I'll use my generics to bring a little flash above easy reaching level and we'll tuck in some tinsel garland among the green for a bit of visual interest before your guests fill the space up. If we stick to white lights, that will unify everything a bit, but we can go white or multicolored around the rest of the space." She was gesturing expansively now, alight with enthusiasm, boosting Kara's own. "I have plenty of round folding tables I'll bring and we can set up by the loading door."

"Can recliners be rented?"

Not missing a beat, Angie flashed that warm grin again and it echoed on Kara's face. "I'll find some. Two, yes? For your Susan and Maggie?"

"You were listening!" Kara was delighted and it lit up her whole expression. 

"Of course I was listening!" Angie laughed, enchanted with the stranger she was working with. "I'm here for you. Can you think of anything else?"

"At least one overstuffed couch for cuddling, and maybe a few of those huge pillows? Maybe we'll actually get my sister to relax if I give Lena a place to hold court. That reminds me, I need to call and get you a purchase order." Chuckling, Kara pulled out her phone and tapped at it. "She did say not to spare the expenses. She's lucky I used to do this sort of thing all the time for Miss Grant."

The familiar little twinge of missing her mentor made her miss the odd look on Angie's face. Seriously, she was so curious…

"There. You'll have a P.O. at your office tomorrow. Just do the standard itemized receipt after all is said and done and we're ready to go. And, actually, if you can get a good price, just buy the recliners. It'll help them recover."

"They're pricy," Angie hedged and Kara merely laughed.

"You know what? Make it three recliners, nice big ones suitable for cuddling. Oh! And maybe heated."

Unable to stop herself, Angie drawled sardonically, "shall I add a vibrate function?"

Kara's eyes went big. "Can you do that?"

There was no stopping the peal of laughter that burst out of Angie. "I like you. Fancy recliners, you got it. Shall I stick to neutrals so your friends can match them to their decors? I'm assuming they won't be staying here in the basement."

"You can't go wrong with basic black with those three."

"Do you think they'll have any objections to leather?" Angie teased. "For longevity."

"Sounds good," Kara agreed, not really certain why she felt so off-kilter, but not in a bad way…


	6. Wednesday, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, these two have become a completely unexpected delight to write for and I got to celebrate that here!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no missing the sisterly spluttering and Lucy cackled with maniac joy at the reaction. Maggie had desperately missed the other woman in the boring hours spent stuck on her couch with a throbbing leg and side.

[Late evening]

With a clatter of keys and growled, "fuck!" Lucy spilled into Maggie's claustrophobic little apartment, laden down with a handful of grocery bags, a bulging duffelbag and thick attaché case. Dumping the latter two, she hauled the groceries into the postage stamp of a kitchen and emerged a moment later with a miniature carton of ice cream and a spoon to hand to a hopeful-looking Maggie.

"Look, Kara," she sighed into phone at her ear. "I love the idea, but you're talking about a hell of a lot of semantics." For a moment she paused and then sassed, "well, that's true, you've got Lena freakin' Luthor as your best friend and is your damn sister on the call yet?"

Parking her ass on the arm of the couch, Lucy didn't resist brushing back Maggie's dark hair and grinning at her. "You look pretty spry for threatening to climb out that window from boredom. Though you ran the bunnies off I see, and by the damn way, that is not ice cream you hippie freak and it took me two tries to find, so you're welcome!"

Humming happily over her little carton of vegan coconut non-dairy treat, Maggie ignored the ranting and took a big bite. With a gusty sigh of happiness, she closed her eyes and relished the smooth, fresh taste of it. "I owe you. Again."

Lucy grumbled and set her phone on Maggie's unbroken leg, tapping the microphone button just in time for a sleepy/harried/amused Alex to come over the line. "Okay already, I'm here, bossy. Where's the fire?"

"In your pants," Lucy yelled. "Though I bet not so much so since you got yourself collared by the only decent Luthor of the bunch, Battle Danvers!"

There was no missing the sisterly spluttering and Lucy cackled with maniac joy at the reaction. Maggie had desperately missed the other woman in the boring hours spent stuck on her couch with a throbbing leg and side.

"Lucy, for god sake…" Alex muttered and the blush was clear in her tone.

"Am I wrong?"

The long pause on the line was telling and Kara jumped into the silence. "Now that we're all here, I have a proposition."

Feeling a moment of real kinship with the beleaguered Danvers sisters, Maggie smacked Lucy on the thigh hard enough to sting.

"Hey! I didn't say anything!"

"You were thinking it. Loudly."

Alex laughed at them and Maggie was so ridiculously glad to hear the sound. As weird as things had been between them, and with no chance to talk about it, it was good that they still had a friendly connection. Harrumphing dramatically, Lucy sprang away and flounced to the kitchen to rustle grocery bags while Kara's voice hurried on. 

They all ignored Lucy half singing and half humming 'Single Ladies' just to be a shit.

"Lucy and I talked this out and we want to move you three wounded into the empty apartment next door. Calls have already been made to get adjustable hospital-type beds rented and moved in, as well as enough furnishings to be comfortable. There's too many of you packed into too small of spaces and we can bring in a nurse a couple times a day to check on you. And there will be more people to talk to and Bug can be around Ro and Shan more--"

"Kara," Alex broke in with that tone of refusal, but trying to be gentle about it. Even as Maggie could picture Kara's falling expression, Lucy broke in loudly. 

"DEO orders! Suck it!"

"Lucy, you can't just throw your weight around like that!"

Alex's amused annoyance carried over the connection and Lucy steamrollered right over her. 

"Fight me, Danvers! You idiots need medical management and it's stupid to have you scattered all over. Vas got released yesterday, and while her place is cool and all, she's going to end up growling at her fiancé and almost-mother-in-law. Not good for future family dinners."

Not wanting them to argue, Maggie interjected, "but I'm not DEO."

Stepping out of the kitchen, Lucy gave her a fierce look and growled, "shut it, Sawyer. You got hurt on our op and I'm taking responsibility. Deal."

"It's really for the best," Kara added in, wheedling for agreement.

"Listen to Junior Danvers, she is wise and otherworldly! We'll have beds and shit in by evening. I can't spend one more day in this matchbox."

"Hey!" Maggie complained, but only mildly, because her place really was too small for more than one person, and Lucy rolled her eyes.

"Okay, shoebox."

After they all laughed, once again Maggie spoke up, her tone gentle. "Hey, Danvers, I'm not real comfortable with the idea either, but some company in particular would be really welcome. I'm getting stir crazy."

The dramatic sigh carried through the speaker. "Fine, you all win. Edna's place will have a decent amount of space for our numbers." Her voice was nearly drowned out with Kara's incoherent noise of glee. "And I think she'd be glad that we're using the space so quickly."

"Yes! Everything is scheduled to be delivered during business hours and Lucy, I'll text you the codes for the parking gates and a spot number once I get that all sorted out. Come by in the evening and I'll be here to help and you can see what we're doing for Christmas! This is going to be so great!"

"Sounds good. Now, I'm not letting Mags here eat just desert for dinner, so I'll talk to you guys later."

After a few more words, the others signed off and Maggie listened to the entirely unfamiliar sounds of someone clattering around her kitchen, smelled the tang of something savory in a frying pan, heard water running.

"Do you do cheese?" Lucy's voice floated out at one point.

"There's some in the fridge I can eat."

In fifteen minutes flat, both were happily tucking into bowls of pasta and sautéed vegetables with enough fresh chopped tomato and herbs across the top to be downright festive. Maggie's sported her crumbly soy cheese and Lucy's something that looked like more traditional cheddar. It was good and Maggie hummed happily. Once her grumbling stomach was half sated she looked over at her unexpected friend, curled up like a cat on the other end of the sofa, watching TV alongside her.

"Thank you for this, and you figured out the vegan ice cream is characteristic of some of my diet. I didn't even think about telling you."

"I figured it out by your short list. Not my usual fare, but I'm adaptable. Just ignore my nasty cow cheese."

They smiled with a new level between them as they continued to bond. After a few more bites, Maggie found herself speaking.

"I'm not actually vegan, and sorta half and half vegetarian, but I'm really lactose intolerant and it makes it a pain in the ass sometimes to get foods that won't send me running for the nearest toilet. There's some over the counter stuff I can take to alleviate the bulk of it, and cheese is easier to tolerate than most dairy, but I better stay away from them while on so much prescription crap. I like this veggie pasta thing you made."

"Good. We'll make sure you can eat what's right for you while you're holed up with the others." Pausing, Lucy looked pensive for a long moment and her voice became uncharacteristically subdued. "This'll be a good move for you and you can get me out of your hair."

Before she could withdraw completely, Maggie reached out and grabbed her wrist. For a moment, they just looked at each other silently, Maggie thoughtful and Lucy wary.

"Y'know, it makes sense that I needed someone as bossy and stubborn and outrageous as you are to get me to behave and agree to this stupid plan."

Maggie let go then, slumping back to the cushions and noting that Lucy took a moment to relax.

"And for the record, Lane? I like having you around."

Hours later, after bad TV and banter and the ordeal of getting ready for bed, Maggie was unsurprised when Lucy's small, wiry body curled along her side and helped soothe her to sleep with the sweetly scented warmth of her.


	7. Wednesday, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her heart knew where home was now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARGH, did I struggle with the final scene of this, with Lena and Bug talking. That said, I think it came out well. Heart-wrenching, but emotionally solid.

[Night]

Work had not felt so exhausting since she had first taken the reins of Luthor Corp. She felt pummeled and raw from dealing with stupid old white men and sorting numbers like trying to unravel an impossible knot. There was no way in hell she would ever catch up on her own, even with the amazing Jess at her side. A team was already being assembled to take some of the load. The loss of control grated on Lena's nerves, but there was no getting around it.

As much as she wanted to go back to Alex and fall into her warmth to sleep for a hundred years, she found herself back at her condo. 

As the system was programmed to do, the main lights rose after she keyed the thumbpad and stepped inside. The air was musty and something smelled like it had gone sour in the tomb-like space. It was incredibly disorienting, being back here. The lonely misery that had consumed her still lingered like the signs of the last time she had been here. 

Her blazer still lay over the back of a chair, tossed there negligently, alongside the heels she'd pulled off. The bottle of butterscotch schnapps and the nicotine-heavy e-juice were still on the counter beside the greasy food bag from that delightfully terrible place she'd had her driver take her to. Even the milkshake cup still sat on the low table near the couch and just getting near it made it very clear where the mysterious stink was coming from.

Fighting not to gag, she gingerly carried the cup out to the balcony to be dealt with later. A gleam of reflected light drew her to the discarded vape machine, rolled away to a corner. Lena basked in the memories invoked by the device, of breathing the fragrant vapor into Alex's mouth that distant night on the rooftop, that completely unexpected encounter that had led to kisses… and then to love.

That hot, heavy emotion still gave her a jolt of euphoria and terror.

Bringing the APV with her, Lena wandered deeper into the condo, noting how the quilt was disheveled where she'd fallen asleep atop it, drunk and miserable. Where she'd left that fateful massage for Alex to hear later, when they had been separated by the events of the Medusa Virus… and Cadmus.

The stab of agony, no matter how resigned she might be to it, had not stopped hurting; would probably never stop hurting. How could her own mother have been a part of that? Then again, she still asked herself similar questions about Lex to this day.

For a moment, she threw herself down onto the familiar bed and wallowed. But self-pity was going to get her nowhere. Quickly gathering up a few things Kara's hurried packing for her had overlooked, she grabbed an outfit for the next day and left behind the condo that felt less and less like home.

Her heart knew where home was now.

Eliza startled awake at a knock on Alex's front door, Kara already on her feet and yanking open the door to greet Lena Luthor with a full-body hug.

"Good to see you, Lena. Good day at work?"

"I've missed you, Kara. And work was a mixed bag, which is a surprise to no one after how long I've been gone."

The woman sounded exhausted and she leaned hard into Kara for long moments before gathering herself to stand up straight again. Kara grinned and patted her back, pulling the duffel bag from her shoulder. "Sit, sit. Eliza made dinner and we saved a plate for you. Besides you don't need super hearing to hear your stomach growling."

Baffled, Lena could hardly resist Kara's enthusiastic herding and found herself pressed into one of the chairs at Alex's dining table. Humming to herself, Kara pulled a foil-wrapped plate from the refrigerator and held her glasses up to blast the shiny surface with her laser eyes. It was very disconcerting to watch, but a nice, hot meal was set before Lena with the expertise of someone who had waitressed for a living at one point. Kara had even remembered silverware.

It was mashed potatoes and mixed veggies and a short-stack of thin meat slices with just a little bit of spicy cornmeal breading that turned out to be pork. It was delicious and soothed a more mundane ache all too familiar from long working days.

After setting down a glass of water, Kara rejoined her adoptive mother and left her friend to eat. After a couple minutes, her head snapped up and she patted Eliza's arm. "I've got this."

In the muffled voices from the bedroom was Kara's subdued, cheerful greeting and Alex's groaning laugh, clearly still half-asleep.

"She's never had a cooked meal," Eliza murmured to herself in a deceptively thoughtful tone before shaking herself out and looking over to Lena, now paused in her eating. "The child, err, Bug. There was a dogfood-like kibble that consisted of the bulk of the Mutates nutrition, along with a random selection of raw fruits and vegetables here and there. It was all very… dehumanizing. So, I kept it simple and she picked at her portion." A melancholy smile pulled at the older woman's mouth. "Though she did at least nibble at everything with Alex setting a good example. There's a bit of hero worship there."

Lena wasn't certain she had the words to tell this nice family that she wasn't certain that she had ever had a truly home-cooked meal in her life either. It brought a lump to her throat, as it always did, to think of the simple things she had never experienced. She would have to make an effort with the child, no matter how they confused one another. If she could face the legacy of L-Corp every day, she could face one small child who was just another broken remnant of the insane woman who had raised her.

"Oh, Kara, get off!" Alex's words were far more amused than annoyed. "I can get across my apartment and give my girlfriend a hello kiss."

Twisting around in her chair, the ache in Lena's heart nearly vanished as she saw a sleep-tousled Alex headed her way. Standing quickly, she met her halfway, falling into the long, slow kiss and wishing she could hug properly. But that broken hand was cradled snugly to Alex's lean torso in a loose sling.

"Glad you're home," Alex murmured in the haven of Lena's mouth and she breathed the loving words in.

"Glad to be home. A few months ago I never would have believed how much more I'd rather be here than at my job."

Alex's sweet smile was pure understanding. "I know exactly what you mean."

Seeing as Lena hadn't finished eating, Eliza offered to give Alex a hand with a bath while Kara decided to head back to her own place to sleep. Soothed by the murmur of their voices and the occasional burst of amusement, Lena eventually turned back to the remnants of her meal and startled to see that Bug had soundlessly taken Eliza's seat.

"I know your smell."

Whatever the child's first conversational words were to have been to her, Lena would not have come up with those.

"She would smell a little bit of you sometimes. The scary one, the Administrator."

It was said with the emphasis of a title, an unwelcome one by Bug's hard expression. It was incongruous on her sweet little face, turning those coppery-gold eyes hard as metal. As much as Lena didn't want to understand what the kid was getting at, she did.

Her mother, head of at least this part of Cadmus. Would her family shame never end?

"My… mother…" It hurt to say. Physically hurt. "Was not a kind person. But I never knew she was so terrible until recently."

For a long moment, Lena stared at her open hands where they rested on the table. It had been a long time since she'd let herself really feel that familiar, weighty pain.

"I mean, she never laid a hand on me," Lena tried to deflect awkwardly under the sheer emotional weight of that coppery stare.

"She never laid a hand on me either."

And there was the crux of it. Abuse never had to be so obvious as bruises or broken bones. The lies and manipulation and coldness would so often do even deeper damage. She'd been spoiled by Alex, by Kara and Winn and even random encounters like Maggie and J'onn. They'd given her the emotional freedom to be more than a Luthor and she would forever be grateful for that. 

"It's… hard, when someone who is supposed to love you, to take care of you… doesn't." Grimacing, Lena did her best to shove down that pain, to duck away from that knowing gaze, far too aged and wise for a child so small. But it was no use and didn't this young victim of the Cadmus madness deserve at least her honesty? Strengthened with her own resolve, Lena forced herself to really look at the child known only as Twenty-six until Alex had gifted her with a cute little name of her own. "But there are lots of wonderful people in the world too, as I've learned pretty recently myself. You and I found a couple of the best in Alex and Kara and all their friends and family."

Bug blinked and her whole face changed, gentling into a wonder that bled off that stony wariness.

"Yes, I felt the same way," Lena said so very quietly, in complete sync with Bug in that moment. "When someone I admired gave me a chance to be more than I was, a chance to care and be cared for. They're worth it. You're worth it." Swallowing hard, she forced herself to say the words, even as there would be a part of her that might never completely believe it. "We're worth it."

Lena never thought she'd ever welcome being rocked back in her chair by forty-odd pounds of desperately affectionate seven-year-old. But something passed between them in the hard hug, the press of their bodies and the salt of their tears. 

Something that could help heal them both.


	8. Thursday 12/22/2016, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps that did make them family of a sort. Jess' smile was slow and wide, the warmth she suddenly felt clear in her expression. Delighted, Lena smiled back and it was the first time in the near decade between them when the slow friendship felt consciously real.

[Day to evening]

Thursday passed more calmly at L-Corp, the shock value of Lena's return having mostly worn off. Aside of some annoying prodding inquiries by overly entitled men in several languages that she happily shut down, Lena felt much better about the mountain of work she had begun scaling. In celebration, she forced herself away from her desk, having put in a normal day's work and walked out, head held high. 

Being back at the helm of L-Corp made her realize just how much she felt like two different people. When once she would have been content with only this great and terrible legacy, now… now she just wanted her strange and wonderful little family around her.

Jess halfheartedly objected to being caught up in Lena's exit, barely able to grab her coat and bags before she was herded into the executive elevator. Once in the cab, she set her things down and shrugged into her coat. Her wry smile earned a smirk from her companion. 

"I'm not complaining, but we're not normally in such a rush."

Lena's little smirk deepened, something of real emotional impact lingering at the corners of her mouth and eyes. "I've never had anything to rush home to."

Over the course of a the few calls to Hawaii, Jess had seen this new softness in her boss when she looked at pretty and tough Agent Danvers. She fiercely hoped the agent knew what a gift she had in this broken, admirable woman. Brightening, Lena's smile widened and she reached out to give Jess' arm a squeeze.

"You, of all people, deserve to get out of this box. Speaking of which…"

First the unexpected but not unwelcome friendly touch and now Lena looked sweetly anxious, abruptly blurting out a long stream of nervous words.

"Uh, listen, Kara is putting together a Christmas Eve get together for friends and family. Would you come?"

For a moment, Jess only blinked, but managed to articulate before Lena emotionally pulled away. "Me?"

Whatever she might have expected, Jess was still thrown when Lena said in an achingly vulnerable voice, "you're all the family I have."

Jess remembered years ago when the intimidating and charismatic Lex Luthor had pulled her from where she'd been a peon in the secretarial bullpen. She was barely twenty years old, still cramming classes online to get her business degree, and not very well liked by her co-workers because she'd rather work than gossip. Still, the big boss pulled her into a completely baffling interview that felt more like a casual conversation, but left her nerves shaken anyway. Something about the interaction pleased him, she remembered his slick smile warming before he asked her to run a personal errand.

Still baffled at what the hell was going on, she had done as instructed, meeting an international flight at NCX with the boss' last name neatly printed on a card.

The disheveled, sunburned, half-drunk and half-hungover younger sister of the boss was not at all what she had expected to been put in charge of.

"I hate flying," the girl had hiccupped and made no move to shake Jess off when she ducked under one arm and began her new task in life. 

It had turned out that the baby-faced Lena was only just shy of a year and a half younger than Jess herself, the nineteen year old having fast tracked herself through Harvard and then gone wandering Europe for a year before coming home. After getting her charge home and cleaned up and poured into bed, Jess had begun a vigil that had lasted more than ten years now. 

Perhaps that did make them family of a sort. Jess' smile was slow and wide, the warmth she suddenly felt clear in her expression. Delighted, Lena smiled back and it was the first time in the nearly twelve years between them when the slow friendship felt consciously real.

"I'd be delighted, Lena."

With a light heart, Lena greeted her driver cheerfully and climbed into the car. She instructed him to go straight to Alex's building and traffic was merciful for once and they made excellent time through the constant business of National City.

Upon arrival, Lena was grateful again for the company that provided her drivers as the man swept around to her door with open umbrella a shield against the unrelenting rain.

"This is madness! I never would have believed it could rain so much in Southern California."

"We do have a tendency to get it all in one big bite. Here we are, ma'am."

At the heavy glass door to Alex's building, Lena smiled at the nameless driver whose face seemed passingly familiar. "Thank you for the good service. I'll be sure to text my pickup time in, but I'm done for the night."

He quirked a little grin back at her, touching the brim of his stuffy little hat. "Very good ma'am, have a good evening."

"You too."

Having Alex's keys in her possession felt so odd, and was such a thrill. No matter that the hand off had been strictly a business decision, as it were, the intimacy of it still gave Lena a rush. Even indolent and out of it with the damage dealt her, Alex was not the sort to casually hand over even a small piece of her safety.

And a set of keys was no small part.

Slightly muffled laughter and an empty living area had Lena setting down her things and heading for the bedroom. In a glance she took in Eliza holding up something at the closet and Bug leaning into Alex where she sat up in the bed.

"Lee," Alex said in delight and Lena smiled warmly.

"I thought I'd come home at a normal hour for once."

Remembering to flash a still slightly awkward smile at Eliza and Bug, Lena went to her lover and bent into a loving kiss. The itch to sex up her hot badass was suffocating suddenly and it took some effort to stifle down the throaty note of need and stand back up. By the kid's curiosity and the mom's smirk, the effort had not been completely successful.

Not to mention those beloved brown eyes gone smoky and dark.

"This is the most alert I've seen you since I sent you off to battle."

There was no mistaking the slightly breathless quality to the observation and Alex grinned wickedly. There was nothing untoward about her pulling up the edge of the t-shirt was wearing to reveal the firm terrain of belly and waist where the bruises were much faded.

There was nothing untoward about the movement except that Lena was desperate to touch, to run hands and mouth and filthier things over that soft skin and hard muscle.

"See? I'm getting better much faster than normal."

Lena knew her well enough to catch that arrogant note of teasing in the words and swallowed hard.

"So," Eliza broke in suddenly and every eye snapped over to her, the thick atmosphere abruptly broken up. "Kara called earlier and the apartment is ready for the lot of us. Bug, sweetie, do you think you would be okay helping me get some of this luggage over there? It looks like Alex and Lena need some quiet time since things will be crowded and loud over there. We'll find you a nice spot that's just yours and you can show Alex when she gets there. How does that sound?"

Clearly torn, for long moments Bug huddled against Alex's side before she nodded and unwound. "You'll come soon?"

"Absolutely. You'll barely miss me for a few hours with so much new to see and smell there. And I look forward to hearing all about it."

Reassured, Bug quirked her shy little smile and rubbed her face to Alex's cheek as had become her adorable habit. Lena swallowed her shock when she too received a little rub and she stroked the black, silvery-ticked hair before Bug scampered away, tail flicking in nervous excitement. 

In a matter of a few chaotic minutes, Eliza had her own luggage in hand and Bug was proudly toiling away under the burden of Lena's smallest suitcase and a black leather backpack that was doubtlessly Alex's. After quick goodbyes, the pair were off to Bug's next adventure, Lena waving and locking up behind them.

And, at last, they were alone.


	9. Thursday, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In giving in to this, Alex had found what she needed, a partner and friend and lover to share a life with, hopefully for a good long time. Lena had found strength and a weight of emotion that made her feel weightless, a partner and friend and lover who could show her that love was indeed possible and that she could indeed love back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lena's grindy song of choice is 'Honey' from Venus Hum. Followed by Bruno Mars' 2016 album, '24K Magic', particularly the track 'Versace On the Floor'.  
> Lena's vape machine: https://www.jakartanotebook.com/images/products/90/300/8817/15/vaporfi-rebel-ii-starter-kit-silver-371.jpg

Giddy and a little shy, Lena gathered a few supplies before rejoining the woman who had won her heart. Sensing the moment was a quiet one, Alex remained still where she sprawled out in the messy bed. Lena scrolled at her phone for a moment before dropping the thing into a clean tumbler where the glass amplified a slow, grindy tune overlaid with an evocative woman's voice. 

That enticing little smirk on her tiger's face deepened when Lena put a little shimmy in her hips, hands raising up to the buttons on her silk shirt. When Lena sashayed closer, Alex carefully maneuvered herself to lay flatter and was rewarded by her lover, still dressed for her high-powered CEO job, carefully straddling her.

"So, I have you at my mercy."

Alex's slow smile was sexy adoration in response to the musing comment. "You do."

Taking great pleasure in Alex's expressions, Lena flattened her body out to rub enticingly over her lover's curves and gave her a quick kiss before sitting up again. "That stays put or I'll tie it down."

Alex flicked her gaze over to her broken hand where it lay in the folds of a soft throw blanket where she'd settled it in hopes Lena would carry through with the promise of that soft, needy noise when they had greeted one another earlier.

"Yes ma'am."

When the song ran down-- Alex made a mental note to ask later after the tune-- Lena stretched out to pick something new, settling on something a little more R&B before settling on her perch. With agile, loving hands, she unbuttoned the soft flannel covering Alex's torso and couldn't resist another kiss that dragged the silky tips of her hair over all that newly-bared skin.

"Missed that," Alex groaned, caught up in the sensations sparked between them. When Lena sat back, she plucked at her own buttons, revealing the lace of her bra and a surprise that made Alex chuckle low in her throat.

"That night on the roof, you startled the hell out of me, you know."

The note of sexy amusement in Lena's voice was contagious and Alex moved her hand from idly caressing a warm thigh to reach up and trace the skin-warmed metal tucked deep into her glorious cleavage. Fingertips brushing over soft curves and stainless steel, Alex hooked her hand around Lena's neck and tugged lightly until she could nose and suckle at the enticing terrain. 

Feeling that mouth and tongue on her throat and upper boobs, Lena's slow grind turned up in intensity a bit. 

"I remember this," Alex breathed hotly into the sweltering little space she was happily trapped in and clamped her teeth around the business end of the Advanced Personal Vaporizer. Lena giggled at the sensation of the steel slipping away from its haven and sat back to watch Alex fondle the thing, her expression thoughtful and amused. "Light her up, baby."

With a quick kiss, Lena hopped up and quickly stripped bare, putting a little swish into the act for the loving and leering look on Alex's face.

"God, you're gorgeous."

It was a sweet comment and rewarded with a quick caress down her bared torso before Lena got a grip on Alex's pajama pants and the underwear beneath, stripping both away. "As are you, baby," Lena complimented and once gain settled to the bed straddling Alex's hips. They both made needy sounds at the mingled heat of their skins and smear of wet trapped between them.

It took a moment for Lena to shake off her carnal distraction-- not helped by Alex wandering hand-- and grab the vape machine to activate its burner. The dull smell of the liquid inside became strong and smoky and both wallowed in the memories.

"That was a hell of a seduction, by the way."

Chuckling at the comment, Lena took a drag from the mouthpiece and grinned, her red-lipped mouth wreathed in vapor. "I was rather happy at how my impromptu teasing worked out."

A roll of her hips made Alex moan softly and that strong hand flexed into her thigh.

"I teased you about having a vice and you called me sassy."

"I believe the word you used was 'plebian'," Lena teased dryly and soaked up that smile.

"Oh, well then, yes, I was sassy."

Tracing that enticing mouth with a fingertip, Alex's lovesick expression made Lena feel like she could fly to the moon and back again. When she shifted her hand to stroke over that reaching arm, Alex spoke softly.

"The moment I figured out you were flirting with me, I was hooked. No one-- no woman-- had seen what I needed and just teased past all my defenses and fear quite the way you did. I was so new, so raw to what I was feeling and you were just what I needed then… and became just what I need now."

As moved as always by this woman and this bond, Lena was pure reverence. "When you looked at me like that, raw and hungry and desperate, but undeniably powerful, it was a rush to what I thought was my ego. But it was so much more than that. It has always been so much more than that." Leaning in, Lena watched Alex's eyes and felt their lips brush teasingly as she whispered, "would you like a taste?"

"Yes."

"Close your eyes."

As had happened that first time, Alex heard the little crackle of the heating element in the APV and her inhale drew in the scent of spices and botanicals carried on Lena's slow exhale. There was something so intimate in the exchange, the thick vapor traveling from one body to the other like a touchless caress. Wreathed in the scents and memory, she paused, remembering how this had played out that first time. Sure enough, Lena's seductive whisper caressed her ears, teased her lips.

"Would you like a taste?"

And Alex trembled just as she had all that time ago in the night air, the sensual shakes echoed in her lover's body above her. Not nervous shakes this time, not teasing for the sake of teasing, but because they knew one another now and relished all that had happened between them.

"Yes."

In giving in to this, Alex had found what she needed, a partner and friend and lover to share a life with, hopefully for a good long time. Lena had found strength and a weight of emotion that made her feel weightless, a partner and friend and lover who could show her that love was indeed possible and that she could indeed love back.

"Hey Tiger, do I still make you nervous?"

Chuckling, Alex wove her fingers into that fall of long hair and suckled at Lena's lower lip. "Not so much. But there is a great deal you do make me feel, so c'mere."

They kissed around the scents and flavors trapped between them and words fell away. Consumed with memories, Lena gasped and nipped at Alex's smiling mouth when that left leg rose, hard muscle and soft skin pressing into that hot ache. And just like that first trip together with the waters of Santa Barbara a soothing presence close by, Lena rocked her hips and painted her need over Alex's skin as she reared back to get some weight behind her thrusting.

The beautiful tableau had lost none of its thrill and Alex pet over that sensitive navel to bump up the intensity of the sexy little sounds garbled in Lena's throat. A sharp twinge in that right wrist warned her to stop moving, but that frustration fell away as Lena grew more urgent. A tickle of calloused fingertips past softly coarse hair to the sweet heat beneath upped the ante.

With a grunting shout, Lena gave up control and basked in the hard ripples of lusty energy that spiraled out from that point of contact. Happy to forgo her own tension for the moment, Alex tickled her fingernails over Lena's abdomen and belly button before tugging at her waist. "Let me hold you, love."

Shifting to collapse gently, Lena locked that raised thigh between hers and snuggled down into the offered embrace. "I've missed your touch."

"Well, not that much touching," Alex deflected with a deflecting tone Lena did not like. Propping herself on her elbows she flicked her hair away and studied those evasive dark eyes. Shifting her weight, she tickled gentle fingers down the lamed right arm where it lay crooked, the mauled hand laying palm up. Long muscles twitched in response to the tender touch. On a whim, Lena used both hands to move her torso, dragging her hair across Alex's chest and face as she kissed over the same path her fingers had taken.

The sexy, broken noise Alex made said so very much. 

"This is a part of you," Lena whispered against the soft skin where Alex's forearm vanished beneath fiberglass and cotton. "And I care for all of you dearly."

Kissing her way back down arm and across upper chest, Lena nuzzled at Alex's jaw and felt the tremble there. Sure enough, those big eyes were awash in tears that Lena took the effort to kiss away. "Your scars will never send me away."

Breath rough with need and heavy emotion, Alex surrendered utterly, body loose and eyes vulnerable. With a tempered, tender touch, Lena held those eyes, the rich brown a thin ring around a darkness like the airless places between the stars. For all the urgency that had consumed her earlier, she relished this link of their locked gazes, the almost lazy stroking over warm skin, the hard plate of bone and muscle, the softness of breast and the wet heat that made Alex whine a high, thready sound. Her whole body was a slow pulse of movement, heels scraping at the sheets, torso and thighs clenching and relaxing until the wave broke with a low, animalistic noise.

And they could fall into one another, breathe together as though of one mind and body, feel the deep, wonderful thing they had created together.


	10. Thursday, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex was unutterably glad to see them both in decent shape, unlike the last time they had seen one another. Without a word, she offered her lone hand first to be clasped by Susan, then did the same with Maggie. The babble of greetings began boiling down to the usual banter and insolence, led up by none other than the resident sass master, Lucy Lane.

[Late evening]

At the top of the elevator shaft, Alex and Lena stepped out, the latter looking curious as they paused in the toweringly tall hallway.

"I'm going to have to remember to hang a left instead of a right," Alex explained with a self-depreciating twist of half-smile that Lena kissed away.

"Well, come on then."

Alex hadn't been over to 4B in years, suddenly missing her old neighbor fiercely. "Wish I'd come by to see her when I had the chance," she mused and raised her hand to knock smartly. Her hand had barely started to lower when Kara jerked the door open with a happy squeal.

"You're here! Hi!"

Alex was grateful to the healing device as she and Lena both were yanked into a rough hug just at the edge of pain, luggage clattering to the floor. There was a chaotic waves of greetings from within the apartment and Bug bounced out of nowhere to latch onto Alex's leg.

"See, I told you that I would be here soon enough. Hey, Kara, she's cuter in that shirt than either of us ever were."

The child just beamed happily up at her, preening in the faded 'Midvale Sharks' t-shirt that she wore like a dress. When kindly asked to help out, she grabbed a suitcase handle and dragged it down the hallway. Shrugging out of wet jackets and hats as they headed after Bug, the newly arrived couple noted four open doors, each with a sparingly furnished bedroom within and the last one a bathroom. At the end was a moderately large living space half full of an enormous couch and two overstuffed recliners, the latter of which cradled Susan and Maggie.

Alex was unutterably glad to see them both in decent shape, unlike the last time they had seen one another. Without a word, she offered her lone hand first to be clasped by Susan, then did the same with Maggie. The babble of greetings began boiling down to the usual banter and insolence, led up by none other than the resident sass master, Lucy Lane.

"Ten for ten on the soft butch aesthetic there, Alex," she teased and gestured at the completely casual ensemble of sweatpants, ribbed tank top and half open flannel shirt.

"Add a snapback and you look like a college gayby."

Maggie's comment made Lena snerk with amusement. "Gayby!"

Alex was torn between a petulant glare and stupefied delight at Lena's stifled laughter. Maggie looked sweetly innocent. "What? You are technically a baby gay."

The 'fuck off' was very clear in Alex's glare and the others cracked up.

"I'm comfy!"

Lena nosed at an ear, whispered something sweet and suggestive that immediately had Alex putty in her hands and set the others off again.

"What's a snapback?" Kara suddenly piped up and Alex shrugged, waving at the gang.

"I have no idea. Ask the gay yodas over there, they've lost me."

It took a bit for the racket of amusement to die down.

"A baseball cap with the snap closures, worn backwards," Susan offered up and Lucy picked up the thread with a terrible Yoda voice.

"Young Gaywalker, have much to learn you do."

Kara seemed pleased with the nugget of pop culture knowhow and Alex just rolled her eyes. 

Grumpy soft butch baby gay Alex should not be as cute as she was, but Lena was completely charmed by her sulking lover who protested, "hey, my girlfriend has no complaints. I'm good."

"That you are, baby," Lena purred and kissed a blushing ear.

"Get it Danvers!" 

That one was at least Lucy and Kyra and possibly Susan as well.

Kara was still looking grossed out when a smiling redhead came into the room with Eliza. "I knew that one. Teenage grandkids are an education."

She was a stranger and both Alex and Lena froze warily in the midst of the friendly chaos, there was no mistaking it. Immediately, Eliza gestured to her new friend. "It's okay, girls, this is Reba Hart, Kyra's mother."

Instantly, they relaxed as Eliza ushered Reba closer. 

"My eldest, Alex, and her girlfriend, Lena."

Perhaps some women might have been offended to be merely, 'the girlfriend', but Lena was pleased to meet a stranger without the baggage of her famous name, however briefly. 

"A pleasure," Reba greeted them with a beaming smile, her light Texan accent warming the words. "Now, Kara there looks like she's ready to bust, so I'll let her get you settled in, but let me or Eliza know if you need anything, okay?"

They murmured agreement as Kara and Bug herded them off towards the kitchen.

"She seems nice," Lena mused and Kara nodded along.

"She is. Now come see the most amazing change."

"You mean how cleaned out this place isn't the most amazing change?"

Alex's admiration faded as Kara brought them to the kitchen and a pair of doors on the inside wall. The first door had a comically shrunken handle and clearly saw little use, the second showed significant wear and tear. The door opened on old, but well-oiled hinges.

"The pantry?" Alex was baffled as to why they were looking at a small room full of shelves of dry goods and cans, and why was there a blanket stretched over one wall?

With a giggle, suitcase dragging behind her, Bug ducked past them… and through the hanging blanket. Startled, Alex and Lena followed, finding themselves in a short hallway that towered over them like every ceiling in the old building. Through a small, lighter curtain, lay Kara's loft.

"Oh this is convenient," Lena marveled at the familiar space. Kara had cleared the old desk next to the bathroom door of her random things and heaved up the suitcases onto the space.

"You two can have my bed, just keep it PG, huh?"

The request was half silly and half serious and Alex couldn't resist teasing, "well, y'know, your hot bestie there does make for a hell of a temptation."

Lena giggled and Kara just glared.

Toeing off damp shoes and changing out of even damper clothes left the couple more comfortable after chill of the rainy outdoors.

"Never thought I'd be living here again," Alex remarked as she looked around the familiar space with fresh eyes. "Crazy."

"Living here?"

Lena's confusion made the sisters chuckle, and Alex drew her into a hug. "Yeah, this place was mine while I was still in school, and I liked it here, but it ended up being a lousy location for work--"

"And I loved it!" Kara broke in happily, making Alex smile indulgently.

"--And Kara loved it, so she took it over."

As charmed by them as ever, Lena got in on the lighthearted banter, always thrilled to be a part of something bigger and better than herself. "Oh, well that makes more sense with the generous neighbor."

"She loved us!"

Kara's mock protest made Alex laugh. "She was always really cool with my crazy hours and living like a typical slovenly college workaholic who partied too much."

"And we had no idea she owned the building, just that she'd been here forever."

In the quiet moment of melancholy for their departed friend, Lena coaxed Alex over with an arm around her waist so that the three of them could hug, Bug squeezing herself in around their knees.

When they returned through the rough doorway knocked out of the pantry wall, it turned out that Winn and the Mutate twins had arrived. They had brought with them a cart stacked with a trio of plastic crates, a large duffelbag and a pile of sleeping bag and pillows. From the crates, Winn was busily pulling out electronics and neatly bundled wires.

Grinning, Maggie gestured expansively at the upchuck of game controllers and assorted paraphernalia taking over the small tables and her own lap. 

"He Who Geeks has brought us entertainment," the diminutive cop said dramatically and Alex picked up a plastic-molded gun from the mess.

"Even left-handed, I can still kick your ass on any shooter, Sawyer."

"Oh, you are so on!"

The playful glowering was the easiest the two had been with each other since things had gotten weird and it was heartening to see. Flashing a quick grin, Winn leaned over his gear before plucking a wire from where it rested on Maggie's plaster-encased leg.

"Normally, you wouldn't let some strange male grab your knee," Alex taunted and preened at the sarcastic glare.

"Ha, ha, hilarious. He brought video games, so I'm willing to cut him a little slack."

"And she has the least dangerous lap," Winn added, looking up from his fiddling at the laughter. Lucy was cracking the others up with the significantly raised eyebrow and a gesture at her own, empty lap. "Yeah, no, Director Lane, you scare me and I don't know exactly how Susan is broken, so Detective Sawyer is the least dangerous right now."

Amidst the hilarity, Maggie cackled, "I don't know if I'm flattered or insulted!"


	11. Thursday, Part 4

While Alex settled to the couch and properly introduced Maggie to her little brother, Kara and Bug went to the twins. While Ro crouched to greet her little cousin, Shan sniffed at the air and smiled knowingly before offering her upturned palms. Kara realized that she had been caught out, no glasses and a ponytail could fool that sensitive sense of smell. However, Shan innately understood that this part of the superhero she had met before was both separate and yet integral to the whole.

Kara's rush of relief at that calm understanding in the ruby eyes nearly left her weak in the knees. With a real sense of camaraderie, she set her hands once more into Shan's and turned her face up to be sniffed at. The friendly touch of foreheads was a bonus she hadn't expected and it made her a little giddy. Not to mention that soft purring that was every bit as soothing as Shan's smaller feline counterparts.

When Ro stood, Shan gently broke away to spend a moment with Bug and Kara watched the larger twin's nose twitch. With a nod, she accepted things as she understood them in that moment, but offered nothing more. Kara understood that this was the warier of the two, reminding her of Alex, forever vigilant to everyone's well-being.

Her warm smile softened Ro around the edges. 

With the baker's dozen of them in the room, it was crowded, but not unmanageably so, with Lucy giving up her seat on the big couch so that Lena could squeeze in with Alex and parking herself on the arm of Maggie's recliner just as Kyra did with Susan. Kara and the twins were fine with the floor and Bug draped herself along the backrest edge of the couch to be close to her grownups.

At one point during the chatting, Maggie had to make her painstaking way from recliner to wheelchair for the thirty-ish feet to the toilet. With the same enthusiasm as her dire muttering over the pain and indignity of it all, she admired the foresight of the sturdy contraption assembled around the toilet that allowed her to wrestle her own weight around and save her a scrap of dignity.

"I found this great website that deals in nothing but medical equipment, mostly for seniors and they were really helpful in getting a few things expedited. The rest will arrive tomorrow," Kara explained when Maggie rejoined an idling Lucy in the mouth of the hallway. 

"Hear that Mags? I think she called you old."

"Pain in the ass."

"That's Major pain in the ass to you."

"You got that right!"

Using the momentum of the hilarity, Kara jumped up and raced off to grab her new ring of keys and came back, nearly vibrating with excitement.

"Alex? Susan? If you guys are up for it, will all of you come see the ground floor space? It's really amazing! We'll all fit on the freight elevator, easy."

"I could use a little exercise," Susan agreed and carefully got to her feet with the help of her redheads and they all trooped out after Kara. With a flip of a key in its lock, the enormous elevator door split horizontally and yawned open like a great metal mouth. Bug did not like the thing, shying back behind Lena where she was clinging to her hand. Lena gave Alex a little peck and waved her off to her mother's care before turning a soft smile on the child she was already well on her way to caring deeply about.

"We'll take the stairs and meet you at the bottom. Come on Bug, I bet there's some great echoes in that stairwell."

And with a compassion not shown to her enough as a small child, Lena led the way to a less stressful route to their destination. She was never aware of the sappy looks in her wake.

Soon the others had clustered in the ground floor's hallway and the freight elevator had clanked itself closed and fell silent, leaving the group in an awkward quiet. A few moments later, the twins perked up.

"Listen," Shan said and the Humans were baffled for long moments before they thought heard a faint, musical sound that suddenly increased in volume as the stairwell door opened. It was a melodious, discordant noise that spilled into the hall along with the mismatched pair. Giggling, they froze at all eyes on them and Bug clambered up to cling to Lena in a full-body embrace that startled, then melted the youngest Luthor. 

"I was right. There are some great echoes in there. Lead on, Kara."

Alex fell in beside her girls, kissing both their dark heads adoringly before tucking a couple fingers into Lena's waistband like a secretive embrace.

Behind door number one the air was tinged with the lingering scents of harsh, industrial cleaners and traces of that odd, organic stink.

"Smell that?" Kara chuckled. "It turns out the last clients that rented this space were running a brewery and left behind all their equipment. I have no idea what to do with it, but at least its clean now."

The space was cavernous, the ceilings another handful of feet higher than Edna's place, three floors above them. The dusty bathrooms stood with their doors propped up and Kara was pleased when she flicked on the lights to see that they sparkled with cleanliness.

"Hey, Lena, that party planner you had me call has turned out to be a miracle worker so far."

"Good, then her reputation remains intact!"

Across the hall, the other space was even more impressive, with a greater square footage due to the configuration of the walls.

"So, the parking garage is on the other side of these walls," Alex marveled. "Sweet. I had no idea these spaces were even here. What the hell are we going to do with them, Kara?"

"Not a clue, but it will be fun!"

Reassured by being hug-squished between Alex and Lena, Bug was insistent about braving the elevator on the return trip and found that it was merely loud, not dangerous. The gang scattered around the living room and indulged in some snacks and low-key conversation as their numbers began dropping off one by one.

Lucy was the first to fall, all that feistiness and energy spent for the moment and leaving her looking like a sleepy toddler. It took little more than a shuffling of Maggie's body to one side-- the damn huge-ass recliner was too big for her anyway-- and Lucy melted into the space to cling like a koala. The pointed look Alex burned into the side of a studiously-ignoring-her Maggie's head promised future teasing.

Bug went next, worn out from the exciting day, and she let herself be carried off by Eliza once she was kissed and fussed over by the loving couple who had all but adopted her. As Reba was sharing a room with her fellow mom, she went as well. Winn played a few half-hearted levels of some game with Kyra before he set up a camping cot and his sleeping gear in the corner closest to the bathroom and went silent.

That left the five friends from the Hawaii trip and the odd pack of four that had formed around Maggie's injuries. Even as Maggie was drifting off in Lucy's embrace, Ro moved to tuck the bracing pillows beneath her lamed leg to be more comfortable and secure while Shan followed Kara into the dimness of the apartment. They returned with blankets and pillows, earning a sleepy grin when they covered Maggie warmly.

"Thanks, guys."

Kyra took the hint that things were quieting for the night and coaxed Susan to her feet. They paused to trade affectionate touches with Alex and Lena in lieu of hugs. 

"We'll sleep on the couch until the Tiny Terrors are ready for an actual bed," Ro assured the others took the hint to head to their own beds for the night. And with eased hearts and minds, the friends and family settled in to rest.


	12. Friday 12/23/2016, Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tousled and dressed in a baggy blue t-shirt and summer-thin long shorts, Kara looked very huggable and Angie slapped down the reaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed touching base with the Kara and Lena friendship that started it all! Oh, and Panyan, you asked for more Angie? Happy to oblige! -wink-

[very early morning]

The murmur of voices woke Kara where she sprawled out ungracefully on her couch. She didn't mean to intrude, but the low note of pain in her sister's voice would have brought her back from near-orbit.

"Hey," Lena said softly, clearly shaking off sleep.

"Hurts," Alex slurred and Kara listened to the rustle of bedding and a clink of the glass left at the bedside table.

"Sit up for me, baby," Lena coaxed and with more small sounds of movement, water was swallowed. "Now, lie back and breathe, nice and slow and deep. That's my girl. You shifted that hand again, restless, let me get that pillow in place."

Alex muttered direly and let out a little hiss before sighing gustily. "Thank you, Lee. Love you."

The heartfelt murmur was followed up by kisses and gentle, happy sounds that slowly faded away. Kara was nearly back to sleep herself when she heard the faintest whisper from Lena, her dear, damaged friend. 

"I'll be able to say it back, I swear."

There was no mistaking the choke of tears, the bittersweet of the words. After a few more long moments, the bedding rustled and bare feet padded, the bathroom door quietly squeaking shut. Water and the toilet running were the only sounds before those feet soft-hoofed it across the sprawling loft.

In the dimness of the city outside shining in, Lena could just make out the shape of her friend against the pale couch. When Kara shoved away her blanket to sit up, Lena took the invitation to throw herself down into the sliver of couch and snuggle in. When Kara remained stiff for a moment too long, Lena too went rigid with mortification.

"No, stay," Kara soothed, scooting back more firmly into the back of the couch and feeling Lena go limp with relief. With an arm hooked around Lena's shoulder in a half-embrace, Kara was perfectly content to be a living heater for long moments, feeling as much as hearing Lena's yawn.

"I miss snuggling like this. Does that make me terrible?"

She sounded so soft and childlike, what else could Kara do but hug her warmly?

"How would it make you terrible? Don't worry, Alex will get better soon and snuggle you all you want."

For more long moments, Lena only nodded and remained huddled in Kara's protective hold. Her soft voice pulled Kara from a half-doze. "She's more worried about that hand than she's letting on. At least I think she is."

Kara managed to swallow down an exasperated sigh. Sometimes, Alex was too stoic for her own good. "That's half waiting for more information and half Alex just being a stubborn butt. You'll get used to it, and probably have better luck getting her to open up."

"Really? You think so?"

Those night-dark verdant eyes were glassy and vulnerable. Without a second thought, Kara squirmed a bit to get her friend in a proper hug. In this, she could easily be strong enough for them both.

"Yes, absolutely. She chose you, Lena. She loves me and Eliza, but she didn't choose us. Even Bug a little bit, because she wasn't going to leave an innocent child in that horrible place. But you? You she reached out for and chose, willingly. That's special."

Sniffling, Lena hugged the strong arms sheltering her.

"It was you too, Kara. You helped me so much by being my friend, by helping me feel like I was worth being a friend. I don't honestly know that I could have fallen for Al without you."

The breathless giggle Kara's hard squeeze earned was the best proof of how far Lena had come.

In the gloom of mid-morning, Eliza followed Bug's bouncy walk through the quiet of the apartment to the pantry and the hanging blanket. Kara's loft lay just as quiet, broken by Alex's sleepy murmur.

"Hey, Bug, good morning."

At the end of the short hall was Kara's bed, occupied only with Alex, and now Bug.

"Lena?"

"Here," Kara called quietly from the cluster of couch and comfy chairs while Lena slept on obliviously. "We were talking in the middle of the night and fell asleep."

Seeing Lena sound asleep in Kara's strong embrace was sweet and not a little confusing to Eliza. But then again, Kara had always been the affectionate sort. Seems even a Luthor couldn't resist the puppyish nature of her child from the stars.

"There's a construction team here, Kara, and a nice young woman named Angie who says she knows you?"

Lena woke with an undignified little snort as Kara went rigid for a moment, her face a mask of shy and eager. When Eliza offered a helping hand, Lena took it after a moment of hesitation, groaning as she sat up.

"Oh, I hadn't meant to fall asleep. I think the last time I passed out on a couch I was still in college. Al?"

"Here babe. Bug's got me. Come say good morning before we're all whisked away."

It was to be another busy day for the strange tribe now inhabiting Edna Needleberg's apartment, full of doctor's appointments and jobs about the city. 

Kara was up now, balling up her blanket to set atop her pillow and trotting over to give her adopted mother a hug. "I suppose I should get some real clothes on and go see what's happening downstairs."

"No, sweetie, she's in the living room, waiting for you." Despite Eliza's gently teasing tone, Kara's eyes went wide and she hesitated, expression conflicted, before racing off. "Guess she forgot to change," she added wryly and the loving couple chuckled along.

"She absolutely doesn't have a little crush," Lena said with completely fake gravity and Alex echoed that in the shake of her head, eyes alight with mirth.

"Nope, not at all. Hey, you know, this is the perfect opportunity for you to start perfecting your nosy best friend skills."

That made Lena light up with childlike delight. "Can I? Ooooo!"

Without further ado, she scampered after Kara, utterly uncaring that she too was still in her pajamas. Mother and daughter merely laughed gently while Bug soaked in all the normalcy around her.

Sure enough, Angie was waiting in the sparsely-furnished living space next door, looking around with alert hazel eyes. She grinned warmly as Kara burst into the kitchen and padded over on bare feet.

"Angie, hi."

Tousled and dressed in a baggy blue t-shirt and summer-thin long shorts, Kara looked very huggable and Angie slapped down the reaction. 

"I'm sorry to bother you at home, Kara, but we have some questions about electrical."

That sweet look of confusion was endearing.

"Oh, I don't know anything about electrical."

Distracted by this charismatic stranger, Kara chalked up her own behavior to admiring the warm, undyed wool sweater and its chunky collar paired with richly burgundy slacks and leather boots. Honestly, that was all. Angie's smile deepened. 

"No, I just need your permissions for what needs to be done. My team has a member with electrical experience."

"Right, of course. Let me get some shoes on." It took some effort not to wince at her own silly behavior and Kara wished she could blame it on being half-asleep.

"Of course."

Kara raced back the way she'd come, completely missing Lena loitering in the kitchen and trailing after her.

"You hush, Alex," Kara said as she raced back into her apartment to grab a pullover shirt and some shoes, not quite hitting super speed. With great effort, Alex kept her scoff to herself-- though Eliza didn't quite manage it-- and pasted on a perfectly innocent expression.

"What? I have no idea what it's like to suddenly have an earth-shattering crush on a new friend."

"She's cute," Lena added as she joined them and Kara looked at them with a weird look on her face, half wary and half hopefully.

"I don't really think I want a new crush."

Lena patted Alex's arm and went to her friend to wrap the blonde in a big hug. "Kara, you don't actually have to do anything about it, honestly. Ignore it, flirt a little, it's all up to you. She seems very nice and spoke kindly to you, and what more could you ask for in someone that could at least be a friend? She clearly likes you back, and as someone who has been in this exact position before, you make an excellent ex-crush and wonderful friend. It's up to you."

The hug she got in response made her squeak-grunt from the force of it.

"You're the best," Kara gushed and was off like a shot, the curtain fluttering in her wake.

"You are clearly the favorite now," Eliza observed wryly, completely impressed with Lena in that moment. Alex merely laughed in delight.


	13. Friday, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neither Lena nor Winn had any idea what to say and both jumped when Lucy abruptly leapt up like an uncoiling predator. For all that she had been so cold and stoic before, her black scowl clearly spoke of her anger and hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the second half of this chapter is near and dear to my heart. When a storyteller gets to delve into something so meaningful to characters they've fallen so in love with, it's a real reward.

Two days before Christmas made for slow days at L-Corp, which was just fine with Lena. Mostly forgoing regular business, she did some intense online shopping while there was still a snowball's chance in hell of getting next day delivery and pulled Jess into her office to set up some chunky company bonuses across the sprawling company.

After a handful of intense hours, Lena happily slipped away, feeling decent for what she had accomplished. It would have to do, because she had no intention of returning before Monday unless the building was on fire.

A half-awake Winn let her in the main door and met her at the apartment. "How's the working world?"

"Tedious but satisfying, which is as good as I can hope for. Where's Bug?"

With an expressive eyeroll, a sleep-deprived and rumpled Winn slouched back towards the living room, gesturing at the largest of the three bedrooms. "Napping on Gramma's bed. She wore me out with questions! How can a kid that small be so smart?"

Chuckling at his dramatics, Lena slipped into the room, smiling when those coppery eyes blinked open. To Lena's sweet surprise, she recognized one of Alex's favorite sleep shirts voluminous around Bug's little frame and a lightweight scarf of her own that had been balled up by her head. Bug had quietly told her new caretakers that their smells comforted her. Giving up a few articles of clothing was a small price for that.

"Hey, sweetie," she greeted and Bug's sleepy face wreathed in her sweet little smile. "Busy day?"

Nodding, Bug curled around Lena hip when she sat on the edge of the bed to stroke the black, silvery-ticked hair and rubbed at the thin fur on the back of her ears. It had been a bit of a shock when helping her with a bath, that Lena had realized the same sheen of fine fur ran from nape to tail as well, thinning until it vanished a few inches away from her spine. It was no wonder that the Mutate trio weren't real enthusiastic about wearing clothing, particularly anything constricting.

Bug had giggled mischievously as she flicked her wet tail and scattered water droplets, making Lena laugh. Remembering the incident fondly, Lena found it hard to believe they had met only a handful of days ago, and bonded less than forty-eight hours ago.

"Me an' Winn played helicopter missions an' were Superheroes in a Lego game. It was fun."

Again, Lena was struck with how normal this child was. Her pondering-- and any comment she was going to make-- was derailed by a hungry gurgle in her guts that made Bug giggle.

"Nice Miss Reba left sammiches for everybody."

"That sounds excellent, thank you, Bug. If you need anything, I'll be out by the TV with Winn, okay? If I have to go talk to the people who are coming by to make sure we're as safe as we can be for now, I'll make sure he's close by."

"Mmm, 'kay. Thank you, Lena."

"You're welcome, sweetheart."

Standing away from the child's warmth, Lena listened to the impulse that came over her and leaned over to gently rub her forehead to Bug's. The sleepy grin she wore as she drifted back to sleep warmed Lena more than she would have believed even just yesterday.

Winn barely acknowledged her walking by to browse the refrigerator for some lunch before she flopped down beside him. Grunting like a caveman, he managed to steal a couple of chips and ignore the swat she aimed at his hand. The small theft clearly cheered him and he waved his wireless controller back towards the bathroom.

"This place is too quiet to sleep right, even with all these bodies here. And I've clearly gotten too old for campouts."

"Why didn't you just take over this great couch?"

"I would have, but the twins were still there and Tiny Terrors were within striking distance anyway. I figured the cot was safer."

Lena huffed a laugh around her sandwich and watched the little Lego figures on the TV go through their adventures at the behest of the controller in Winn's hands. Abruptly, he seemed to really register her presence and squinted at her. "Hey, you're home early."

"I see that your being a zombie when tired is typical."

"Sassy."

"Have you met me?"

They maturely stuck their tongues out at each other and chuckled, bumping shoulders.

"I'm home early because there's a security firm due in any time to put in some measures to ease our warriors."

A brisk knock on the door had Winn hitting pause and bouncing off with significant more energy than a few minutes ago. Surprisingly, it was Lucy there, dressed for DEO work, her expression stony. She barely managed polite greetings to her puzzled companions and headed into the kitchen. So they went back to what they had been doing, chattering about the security measures Lena was going to have put in.

Lucy silently joined them, sitting rigidly on Maggie's recliner and sipping at a soda.

"How's work?" Winn finally asked hesitantly, feeling how the air around seemed to shimmer with a well-controlled tension.

"Fine. It's always weird to be in the downtown base where half of them have no idea who I am, which is probably why I overheard more than I really wanted to. Between random shit about Cadmus and the techs bragging up in terrified awe that Big Gun you two cooked up, I feel really out of touch."

Neither Lena nor Winn had any idea what to say and both jumped when Lucy abruptly leapt up like an uncoiling predator. For all that she had been so cold and stoic before, her black scowl clearly spoke of her anger and hurt.

"So, think I can join your club?"

They stared at her for a long moment before Lena asked hesitantly, "our club?"

"Yeah, as apparently I'm an oblivious idiot and, while I knew my dad could be a xenophobic asshole, I still can't get my head around what Cadmus really turned out to be." She was rigid with fury, face pale, arms clamped tight around herself, fingers white with strain where they dug into her upper arms. "I mean you came from a family of xenophobic assholes, and you came out okay."

Lucy was close to breaking, breathing hard, pupils merely pinpricks, her throat working hard to swallow, over and over again.

"I almost became him," she choked out, flushing red with stress and tendons standing out beneath her skin. "God, when I think about what they've done, who I almost sent right into that meat grinder…"

Lucy literally shook with a horror neither Lena or Winn understood.

Concerned, Lena stood and approached gingerly, holding the green gaze not entirely different from her own. "Did I come out okay?"

That snapped Lucy out of her spiral, confusion easing her crippling stress. "You did. You've got a whole platoon of good people around you who'd totally call you out on your shit, how could you not be?"

"Well, so do you."

Blink.

Lucy looked wonderingly at Lena for a moment, her body easing as her gaze flicked over to a very sober Winn. "Hey, our friends are the best people and they like us, right? We have got to be better than where we came from. So, yeah, welcome to the club."

It was the right thing to say and Lucy nodded jerkily and followed Lena's loose gesture to the couch where they had been hanging out. Both of the original club members studiously ignored how the youngest Lane rubbed roughly at her wet eyes.

 

(And, if a day and a half later, when Kara came to pick her up from work bearing a plastic bag that she handed over and left Lucy alone for a few moments to look at? And she saw the handful of wildly-colored t-shirts inside that read 'Sans-Serial Spawn' across the chest, Lucy burst into tears? She would never tell.)


	14. Friday, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To feel that powerful body, watch those warrior-alert eyes soften in absolute trust, was an anchor that Lena knew could call her back from darkness, from madness, from death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And at last, we come to an important milestone for our lovely couple. I still can't read the end of this chapter without getting a little choked up…

The new club had sat around in a companionable quiet before Lena's security firm arrived and Lucy gathered her stuff, muttering about needing to 'get some work done in this madhouse' and headed for Maggie's little room. But she paused in her flee to look at her companions, really look at them. They knew the aching vulnerability and gratitude in her eyes and accepted the hoarse, "thank you," for the gift they knew it truly was.

Caught up in the preparations of putting some security in the building, Lena had no idea the gang had returned from a visit to UCNC Medical Center and was pleasantly startled at the noise of the apartment upstairs.

But, as Lena returned the greetings, she could tell the group was subdued and a certain older sister was conspicuously missing. With a low, soothing murmur of encouragement, Kara sent a clearly sad and clingy Bug off to her all but de-facto grandma to be cuddled. Nervous and growing more so, Lena followed Kara's gesture to the kitchen where the superhero's expression crumbled. Without a second thought, Lena wrapped her up in a hug that was instantly returned.

"What is it?"

"There's… bad news about Alex's hand."

Closing her eyes against the spike of pain for her lover, Lena nodded and just held Kara for a long moment. She had suspected the news, felt as though Alex had too. There were just too many waves of odd numbness amidst the pain of recovery to the traumatic injuries. Lena had been involved with enough medical tech research to be aware of the language symptoms usually spoke.

With a deep breath, Kara leaned away and dredged up a sad smile. "She's lying down if you want to see her." A soulful look at the huge concrete wall separating Alex from the rest of them was pure longing to help. "I doubt somehow that she's sleeping."

On a whim, Lena stretched up to leave a warm little kiss between Kara's eyes and nodded. "I've got her."

For all of her reassurance to Kara, Lena was scared. Did she have the emotional fortitude to help Alex through this? No matter how much she adored her? But this woman made her feel so strongly, so deeply, and wasn't that proof enough? Heartened, she took a deep breath and took the weird entrance to Kara's loft.

Alex, curled on her right side in the bed, made no sound or movement, but Lena knew her body well enough to know that there was no sleep here. Toeing off her shoes, she stripped off her sweater and simply climbed into the bed to curl herself tightly along Alex's bowed back, to absorb the shudder in that beautiful, strong frame. With her left arm snug around Alex's waist and her right curled under her head so that she could press her face to the base of her neck, Lena just lay there, warm and reassuring.

Some time passed in that charged but easy quiet. Lena could hear the quiet tears, feel them in the tremors through Alex, but she lay quietly, relishing how Alex slowly moved her left arm over hers, intertwined their fingers at her belly to draw them over her heart.

Eventually, Alex squirmed a bit and Lena eased away only far enough to let her roll onto her back and they could look at one another. 

Alex looked miserable. Her broken hand lay listless and useless on the bed, dropped there uncaringly as though it no longer mattered. It had been carefully redressed, a preformed splint cradling the fingers and thumb in a loose, natural position, strips of fiberglass wound around fingers and palm to leave airspaces and a supportive gauntlet from wrist to halfway up her forearm.

Petting Alex's face clearly eased her, the wet eyes nearly closed and the sniffles quiet and pitiful. Sensing that Alex could use a more visceral anchor, Lena squirmed around until she could half get up, straddling Alex's hips and sprawling out atop her. Sure enough, the hale arm was instantly a vice around her ribs and the sobs choked out into the warm, silky fall of dark hair.

"There's… there's nerve damage, Lee. Lots of it."

Lena had not wished to be wrong this badly since Lex had spiraled into madness.

"What am I gonna do? I can't be… what I am, broken like this!"

Lena didn't like that edge of hysteria, sitting up abruptly to see Alex glowering accusingly at the hand, as though it had betrayed her, no longer meant what it should to the whole. The brown eyes jerked back to Lena's gaze when a strong hand wrapped around the fresh cast, dragged it closer to shoulder, it's mate pinning down Alex's left wrist, leaving her trapped.

For a long time, they merely stared at one another, Alex comforted by the warm, living weight of this woman she'd fallen so hard for, the intent green eyes and serious expression on her lovely face.

To feel that powerful body, watch those warrior-alert eyes soften in absolute trust, was an anchor that Lena knew could call her back from darkness, from madness, from death.

Something new bloomed over Lena's face, softening her eyes, and Alex was captivated. She had seen it, like glimpses through a fluttering curtain, but never so clearly as in that magical moment. 

"Do you think you are any less to me for this? Any less to anyone? Oh Tiger…" Dropping back onto her elbows and cupping that expressive face in her hands, Lena stroked her thumbs through the wet gathered at the corners of those beloved eyes, soothing the strain. "Alexandra Danvers, you are the most extraordinary person I have even known and… and I love you. Dearly."

The words had been a long time coming and the burden of fear fell away as Lena breathed them out at last. Wonderment broke over Alex's expression like a sunrise and she could only blink and gawk for a long moment.

"Too dramatic?"

The half teasing and half nervous comment made Alex huff wetly with adoring amusement and grip her close. Lena was relieved to feel that the right arm, accepted again into the whole, was part of the embrace.

"Maybe a little dramatic, but I like it. I love you too, Lena."

The kiss was a quiet one, soft and lush and slow.

"You're my home now, Alex. You became that somewhere along the line."

A sharp exhale held a note of vulnerability, breathed out from Alex, inhaled by Lena.

"Home. Yes, that's it exactly. You feel like home."

Despite loving embrace as it was-- because Alex really loved the feel of Lena's weight on her-- Alex rolled them onto their sides so that she could watch her beloved's face. As she had done so many times before, Lena traced gentle fingertips over Alex's features as though learning her by Braille. It relaxed and anchored them both in the heavy moment.

"I think your really meaning… it." Lena had to force herself past her ingrained fear, her voice stressed and relieved in the same breath. "That you love… me… it still shocks me, every time."

Alex's slow smile was pure adoration. "Then I look forward to shocking you for what will hopefully be a long damn time." She nuzzled and kissed at those wandering fingers and rubbed her good hand in long strokes over Lena's back. "I admit that I've been freaking out."

"I know. And I don't know how I could ever thank you for being so patient with me."

Alex smile was gentle, and just a tiny bit teasing. "I meant about my hand. I was always good with you being comfortable and not rushing into things. I only got my closet door kicked off its hinges a few months ago. No way was I gonna be an asshole about love stuff going slow."

It was so good to see how she could talk about those things with ease now. Pressing close, Lena kissed that smiling mouth lingeringly, absorbing the sense of wholeness their bond brought her. It was a life raft on the stormy seas of her heartbreak in the past, of abuses she would forever have to deal with.

"I just worried that I couldn't even do it, couldn't find a way to really love… Not after…"

She didn't need to say it. The tears that gathered in her closed eyes spoke volumes and Alex kissed them away with gentle care. 

"I only got an ugly taste of what you went through with Lex, when Kara got hit with the red Kryptonite. I can't even imagine how you feel. Madness took away the brother that you loved. That you still love."

Sobbing, Lena huddled into the strength of what they had become together and just like the strong emotions, a sea of good and bad, wash over her.

"Never be ashamed of that, Lee, that you love him despite what he's done. None of that was your fault, no matter what the hell anyone thinks or says."

Staring in wonder into those beloved eyes, Lena could barely speak. "How…"

"You bring out the best in me, Lena Luthor." Their smiles were loving echoes of one another. "After all isn't love supposed to make you better?"


	15. Friday, Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mocking theatrics were followed up by Lena fisting her hands into the open edges of Alex's shirt and laying a smooch on her lover that had the rest of the room cackling and hooting even more. Kara ducked away, muttering about her wounded eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really liked the idea of the warriors trading stories as warriors have done since our most ancient of days. And a new facet of Bug is revealed!

Eventually a sense of deep peacefulness fell over the pair and they once more felt as though they could be a part of the larger world beyond themselves. Taking a deep, bracing breath, Alex rubbed her open hand and the solid shell of the cast over Lena's back. Responding to the changing intent in the caresses, Lena propped herself up to study her beloved's face. 

"Are you ready to go face the madhouse?"

"With you by my side, I can do anything."

The tone was lighthearted, but Lena empathized utterly with that tone of vulnerability.

They took a few leisurely minutes to get Alex changed into more comfortable clothes and further settle one another in preparation of facing the energy of the others.

"Winn's been dying to get you play one of his video games," Lena teased as they paced down the short hallway to the blanket-curtain and ducked into the other apartment and the expected noise. Unexpectedly, it was Maggie's voice carrying over the background hum of amusement, her tone excitable.

"So, I'm lying there trying to catch my damn breath and the hole in the ceiling suddenly widens and the rhino-thing shoves its head through and bellows at me, again!" 

"The nerve," Lucy drawled sarcastically and Susan snorted with amusement.

"Oh can it, Major Pain-in-my-ass. So, somehow I managed to drag myself under the stupid truck that caught me in the first place and the rhino jumped on top of it and I thought you guys were gonna need a spatula to clean me off that concrete the thing bounced so low!"

Lena was caught by the soft smile on Alex's face as she listened to the story, soaked up the laughter and relief. Caught under Alex's left arm, she snuggled in more closely.

"The good part of battle is the stories," Alex explained softly and Lena got another glimpse into the Agent Badass part of her. 

"Then you should go add your two cents," she encouraged just as softly and relished that soft, adoring kiss. Still wrapped up in one another, they finally strode forward to rejoin the others.

"Yeah, well I had a cyborg who wanted to murder my family and looks like the man I consider my father who tried to kick my ass." The great upwelling of happiness in response to Alex's droll comment was like a deep breath of clean air after holding their breath for too long and warmed the couple completely.

Susan's sardonic voice interjected into the lull, "y'know, my getting mauled by a fuc-- errr, stupid werebear really should beat you all out, but how do I compete with Maggie's rhino and the crazy cyborg?"

Bug was ecstatic to see Alex, bounding over the couch to wrap her arms around both her people as best she could, Lena stroking her head. With the ease of a light-boned monkey, she pulled at that caressing hand for the leverage to launch herself upwards and latch onto Lena's neck. Startled at the suddenness of the maneuver, Lena adapted and brought the three of them into a big hug.

"Thanks, Bug, for letting me go and be sad by myself for a bit," Alex murmured into the wiry soft hair. "It's important sometimes, to just really feel."

When her gaze met their soft green counterparts around the back of Bug's head, the moment of empathy was a pure one. 

"Hey!" Kara greeted enthusiastically from the entrance they had only just come from and Alex gently broke away to get wrapped up in a hug as familiar to her as her own breathing. "Just had a little work emergency, no big deal."

Alex wanted to pursue the blasé comment, but swatted down her agent self and just clung to her sister for long moments. Once reassured, Kara leaned back and spoke again.

"I took a few minutes to swing by the bar to assure M'gann that you were all okay. She was asking after you specifically, Maggie."

That made the detective light up. "Really? That was nice of her." Then she sobered suddenly. "How did the place feel?"

To those in the room that knew the alien bar, it was a bittersweet moment to remember what had happened there. Kara wobbled her hand in a 'so-so' gesture in lieu of words, but Maggie understood what she meant. It would be a long time, if ever, before that space shed the aura of loss and danger.

There was a long, quiet moment that drifted just to edge of uncomfortable before Lucy suddenly piped up, her voice teasing. "No bra, huh, Badass One?"

Self-consciously, Alex pulled her flannel shirt closed over the ribbed tank top she hadn't even noticed was a little clingy and gave Lucy a sour look. Not that it did a bit of good, the smaller woman smirking unrepentantly. "I'm comfortable."

"Sweat pants, ribbed tank and well-loved flannel," Susan picked up the theme with misleading seriousness. "My compliments on an exponential improvement on the classic soft-butch look."

"Oh yes," Maggie added with all the seriousness of a golf commentator. "That's very gay of you, Danvers."

"Wait!" Kara suddenly yelped and vanished into the pantry with enough speed that Alex wanted to yell at her in reminder that there were people in the immediate vicinity that ostensibly still didn't know who she really was. Moments later, Kara reappeared and jammed a baseball-style cap over her head. Backwards. She looked very proud of herself while the others dissolved into utter hysterics. "Snapback. See, I was listening!"

"Weirdest wingman ever," Alex sighed.

The mocking theatrics were followed up by Lena fisting her hands into the open edges of Alex's shirt and laying a smooch on her lover that had the rest of the room cackling and hooting even more. Kara ducked away, muttering about her wounded eyes.

Pleased with herself, Lena buttoned up the shirt and gave her lover a smoldering look. "You're mine to ogle, not the hyenas. Now go play."

With a last kiss, she sent her tiger off with a swat to the rear and let Bug drag her over to a small table set up near Winn's little nest by the bathroom. "Look, look. Winn had colored pencils he let me use! Aren't they pretty?"

The drawings were more than pretty, they were stunning. Shocked and impressed, Lena shuffled the handful of papers and admired each.

"Bug, these are beautiful. You have a real gift."

They were perspective sketches of the living room and kitchen with loving detail paid to the aged cabinets and the soft edges of the recliners and sofa. There was another of the bed she'd napped in, a half-finished sketch of Eliza's face with a crinkle of feeling in the corner of her eye that hinted at the undrawn smile. There were little bits and pieces of all of them scattered across the fields of white.

Pleased, Bug nodded matter-of-factly and turned away to head over to her neat little workspace.

"Don't you want these back, sweetie?"

Puzzled, Bug just looked at Lena as though she was mad. "I'm not allowed to keep them."

The words struck like a blow, leaving Lena stunned even as Bug calmly turned away to place the borrowed pencils carefully back in their box and set them in one of the crates Winn had hauled in. 

Lena felt wildly out of her depth suddenly.

Swallowing hard, she reached out and laid a gentle hand on Bug's arm. "You're allowed to have things of your own, Bug. I mean, now you are, because you're not in that lab any longer. Would you like to keep your drawings?"

For a moment, the unusual child merely stared at Lena as though she were something as completely foreign as breathing water. Then her eyes jerked over to the chaotic energy of her other new companions.

"I can keep things?"

The fear and wonderment in her tone broke Lena's heart all over again. The comfort of physical things was something she had no memory of being without. Wracking her mind to come up with the right words, Lena bought herself a few moments by coaxing Bug into a hug.

"I'll tell you what. If you and I and all your other new adults keep communicating, we'll all figure out what belong to who, okay? In the meantime, yes, your drawings are all yours, they all will be, unless you decide otherwise."

And Bug just stared at her like she had been given the world all over again.


	16. Friday, Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alone then, Kara turned her attention to the maze of legal documents, serenaded by the wild animals as they rampaged through some violent digital landscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is mostly a couple of scenes I had SO MUCH fun with! Because I never get tired of sarcastically competent Susan and the video game thing had to happen. Enjoy!

Torn between the carnal burn from the teasing smack on the ass and the comforting manic energy of her friends, Alex parked herself on the couch as ordered.

"You can't avoid me forever, Vas!" Lucy raged with completely false ire, shaking a finger at her placidly grinning pal.

"What are we going on about now?" Alex asked quietly and Maggie flashed a smile at her.

"Favorites."

"Kyra," Susan intoned calmly, her serenity hilarious contrast to Lucy's histrionics. 

"That's too easy! Come on! Okay, so me and Danvers."

Trying not to laugh, Alex pulled the best puppy-eyes she could given the silliness of the situation. Susan gave her a dry look and shifted her attention between her two favorite DEO people, pretending to take it all so very seriously.

"Kyra."

Throwing her hands up in mock outrage, Lucy allowed Maggie to pull her down into the embrace of the recliner while the rest of them laughed and laughed. Hugging the smaller woman to her side, Maggie didn't even think about the kiss she pressed between those dramatic eyebrows.

"Who's second then?" Alex couldn't resist pestering and once again Susan was all false gravity.

"Kara."

Said Kara beamed smugly and stuck her tongue out at the rest of them and sashayed out, leaving an opportunity for Winn to jump in.

"Who's third?"

"J'onn."

"Now you're just trolling us," Lucy drawled and traded affectionate glowers with Susan.

"Well there's always Bob the janitor."

"We don't even have a Bob the janitor!"

"Don't we?"

"Susan, stop fucking with us."

"Me? Perish the thought."

In the midst of the Great Sass Off, Bug scampered over with her drawings to clamber into Alex's lap. Lena leaned over the back of the couch, rubbing her jaw against Alex's temple. "I have a Bob the janitor."

Susan was on the comment in a flash, her dark eyes alight with mirth even as her voice remained the very poster child of droll. "You do indeed. Nice fellow, looking forward to retiring a few years. Likes to fish."

Even Alex paused in admiring Bug's art as the whole gang of them gawked at Susan.

"How do you know L-Corp has a Bob the janitor?" Lucy accused suspiciously, entirely uncertain if Susan was still messing with them or not. That sly, utterly smug look was all the warning they got before the final volley.

"Why shouldn't I? I know more about both bases than you two combined."

Conceding defeat, both Lucy and Alex raised surrendering hands while the others laughed themselves nearly to tears and Winn yelled, "burn!"

With a few words of admiration and encouragement, Bug was happy to escape the high energy of the living room. Before Alex could worry overmuch, Lena pressed a kiss to her loose curls and straightened up to follow the child. "I've got her."

For a moment, the gang let Alex stare after her girls like a lovesick idiot before Susan spoke up. "Your kid is rapidly becoming a Mama's girl."

That was all Lucy needed to be off and running again, alight with her wild, mischievous energy. "Does that make you dad? Are we gonna have to listen to terrible dad jokes now?"

Alex just gave her a flat look that didn't quite chase off the affectionate softness in her eyes. "I'd almost be jealous if I weren't whipped."

"So whipped," Susan agreed sagely and grinned when Alex rallied and changed the subject.

"Speaking of whipped, where's Kyra?"

Always happy to talk about her fiancé, Susan didn't need any prodding. "She's performing tonight. I'd have loved to go watch, but I'm still a little shaky and that noise level would suck for my head. She'll roll in about two or so."

There was a lull then, one that Alex broke into with forced cheer. "So, I hear you have videogames for us, Winn."

Bless the boy, he picked up the change in subject like a champ. "I do indeed. I figured first person shooters were a safe bet and spent this morning doing some programming for you."

Grabbing a small, mil-spec plastic hardcase, Winn reverently lifted out what looked like a pair of polycarbonate safety glasses. Only they had wider stems than normal, the clear plastic riddled with artistic circuitry and a few tiny LEDs for flash.

Intrigued, Alex reached out, surprised when he yanked them back to his chest and gave her a serious look that bordered on grave.

"You be nice to these. They are one of my most precious babies and I worked really hard on them."

Even more curious then, Alex took the glasses when Winn finally handed them over, peering at the modifications. After tapping at the laptop on one of the small tables, he gestured for her to put them on. Instantly, Alex startled at semi-3D images projected onto the lenses, moving and shifting as she did.

"Whoa," she breathed out as crosshairs and pointers focused on and dismissed various objects in the room, as well as her fellow people. "This is totally Iron Man."

"I try. Anyone else want to play? We're stuck with gamer thumb, but it seems only fair that Alex gets the fanciest toy right now. I have a program set up that links those two PS4s so that four players can go at the same time."

Pulling out a trio of ordinary, if not high-end controllers, Winn held one out. Shrugging, Maggie accepted one but Lucy shook her head. "Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. This poor idiot has to pull a graveyard, so I'm off to nap. You good, Sawyer?"

"Yes ma'am."

No one commented on how Lucy paused, chewing on her lip for a moment, before nuzzling Maggie's temple and rolling out of the chair to scamper off. Though Alex and Susan did snerk, making Maggie color lightly under her warmly-tinted complexion and pointedly ignore them.

In the kitchen, Kara was caught up in admiring Bug's drawings and doing her best to ignore the increasing noise levels on the other side of the wall.

"You're really good. Remind me to go through my supplies and get you some proper tools."

"You are not squad leader, Schott! Bite me!"

Knowing that the shouting was only going to get louder and more vulgar, Kara swallowed a wince at Alex's shout and shared a commiserating look with Bug.

"You know, they're just going to keep getting crazier, right?"

"Why?" the child wondered, confused by the aggressive yet harmless energy of these people she had fallen in with. Lena chuckled and set warm hands on Bug's shoulders in support, but let Kara answer the question.

"Well, they have a lot of energy and can't use it the ways they're used to, since they're recovering from injuries. You must be feeling a little bit of that, not being able to use up some of your energy in physical ways."

Thoughtfully, Bug thought about that, glancing from one woman to the other for support. "A little bit. An' they're getting very loud."

"That they are," Kara agreed adamantly, silently commiserating with Lena's amused expression. "Tell you what, why don't you and Lena go next door and watch a movie? I have tons of them. And if you have some energy you'd like to get rid of, I have an excellent bed for jumping on."

That made Bug's face light up. "Can I?"

"Absolutely! And if you don't have any ideas for a movie, can I suggest 'Matilda'? It's a really good one. If I get tired of this paperwork, I'll join you, but don't wait for me. I've seen it before."

Susan's voice shouted loudly into the lull, making the kitchen trio wince. "Fucking cover me, Winn! You're supposed to be the fucking sniper!"

"Incoming!" Alex bellowed back and Lena coaxed at Bug.

"I think that's our cue to escape."

Alone then, Kara turned her attention to the maze of legal documents, serenaded by the wild animals as they rampaged through some violent digital landscape.

"The flank, Danvers!"

"If that bastard hits me with a rocket launcher one more time..."

"Just 'cause you're too lame to learn the fancy glasses!"

"Fuck off, Sawyer!"

"Your six, Vas, your six!"

"If someone isn't at least feared dead, what's the point?"

"Their sniper found me!"

"Sit tight, Winn, I got you!"

"Incoming!"

"Who has a flashbang?"


	17. Friday, Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finished the movie with Bug curled up in Lena's lap, the both of them sheltering the other as the movie hit close to home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, yes, I'm madly in love with the image of Bug fox-pouncing all over Kara's bed! You caught me. Here's a video that is the basic pounce, with the bonus of the correct coloring for Bug! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzFOOEFqNA4

Scampering ahead of Lena, Bug crouched with tail lashing before taking a leap at the bed, nearly bouncing herself off the other side. It took a couple tries and a gesture of encouragement from her new adult before she really got into it, leaping and bouncing with all the unfettered joy of the fox DNA spliced into her genes.

Lena was a little shocked by how hard she laughed in delight at the spectacle. 

Grinning happily, Bug finally took a wild dive at Lena, nearly sending her sprawling into the bathroom behind her, and the pair hugged.

"Was that fun?"

"Yes!"

"It looked like fun. You'll have to visit my place someday, I have an even bigger bed."

They raided Kara's snacks and found the movie, curling up on the couch to watch. Right from the start they were utterly engrossed in the adventures of an extraordinary girl in terrible circumstances who rose above it with some help from her friends. 

"Is Matilda a Metahuman too?" Bug piped up as the heroine took revenge on the terrible school principal. As seemed to happen a lot lately, Lena had no idea how to respond and went with gut instinct.

"You know, she must be. It only makes sense."

"An' the other kids like her still?"

The emotional waters grew choppy, but Lena dug deep for the sake of this sweet soul who looked up at her with those big, vulnerable eyes.

"Sure they do. It's only the mean lady that doesn't like her, and the mean family who never understood her. Miss Honey loves her, and so do her nice friends."

Somehow, she'd found the right thing to say and was rewarded with that shy, sweet smile. 

"Like you an' Alex. You're my Miss Honeys."

That adoration rocked Lena, called to some part of her she never even realized she had, making her catch up her little friend in a suffocating hug. "Yes, just like me and Alex."

They finished the movie with Bug curled up in Lena's lap, the both of them sheltering the other as the movie hit close to home.

"Matilda is a pretty name," Bug mused as the film ended on its happy note of the strength of families, even if you have to find your own.

"It is," Lena agreed, her tone warm but a little distant as she wrestled with her own feelings. "You know, sweet girl, you should choose a name for yourself."

A little pucker of frown drew in Bug's raven-dark brows. "But Ro and Shan got their name from someone they like. Do you like Matilda?"

"I do."

"Alex gave me Bug."

And at last Lena took the hint and felt a rush of adoration for this wounded child she had connected to.

"Can I give you Matilda?"

That blinding smile was answer enough.

\----

Pleasantly exhausted, Eliza and Reba climbed out of the cab that had brought them back to Kara's building. 

"We're crazy to have gone out shopping on December twenty-third!" Reba laughed, her drawl stronger in her tiredness.

The cabbie wasn't particularly gracious about it, but stepped out to unload the trunk anyway. Having already struggled with the mountain of commerce, the pair weren't completely certain how they were going to manage this last leg. The cabbie's eyes going wide made them look over even as a slightly familiar voice called out. "Afternoon, ladies. Could you use a hand or four?"

In the watery evening light of a drizzly California, the twins were even more striking, standing there with their four clawed hands extended, palms up. When the cabbie muttered something startled and insulting, Eliza snapped a ferocious glare at him, making him recoil. Shoving a couple twenties at him, she glowered as he scrambled away.

"Asshole," she growled and turned back to the startled and amused Mutates, all smiles again. "Thank you, girls. A hand or four would be greatly appreciated."

While not as overtly accepting as Eliza, Reba trusted her daughter and Susan in their trust of the unusual strangers, offering a quirk of smile and a handful of bags. With a pair of young backs and prehensile tails, the older women ended up only with their purses, following their unexpected valets into the building.

There was a racket of hammers and saws coming from the doors flanking the hallway, the scent of evergreens at last subsuming the odd stink from the old brewery equipment. Busy workers swarmed over both rooms, working on raw construction as well as more mysterious tasks. There were a few startled looks, but they were professionals and immediately went back to what they had been doing.

"Are you girls joining us?"

Surprisingly, it was Reba that had asked, catching the exotic twins off guard, but pleasing them too.

"You should," Eliza coaxed. "Your little cousin would love your company."

None of them paid much attention to the elevator dinging nearby, but the laughing voice they all knew was a different matter.

"As would your packmates! Hi guys, done some shopping?" Lucy was all smiles as she power-walked over. "Hey, can you do me a favor and keep an eye out on Maggie tonight? Work calls."

"We would," Ro hedged and Shan jumped in.

"But we got a part time job at that bar you all go on about."

From all smiles to instantly pensive, Lucy was clearly conflicted and Eliza reassured her. "We'll all make sure Maggie's taken care of, Lucy. We'll see you at the party tomorrow?"

"Yes ma'am. Well, okay then, I should get moving. Goodnight."

"Got it bad," Reba drawled almost salaciously once Lucy vanished into the dim evening. The twins scoffed in amusement and Eliza gave her new friend a playful swat on the shoulder.

"Reba!"

The redhead just chuckled.

The noisy ruffians were ecstatic to see the moms and the twins, Winn abandoning the gimps to scramble over and grabbing a few things to help out. Eliza made a beeline for Alex and Reba for Susan, each of them turning their faces up for forehead kisses.

"Did you survive consumerism?" Susan joked, basking in Reba's adoration. The woman soothed a childhood of family hurts in a way that Susan had come to love dearly.

"We had a good time, actually. After all, we both have plenty of stories about our headstrong redheads to share."

Alex wrinkled her nose up but didn't duck away from her mother's stroking over her messy hair.

"Did you kids eat?"

"Lucy made homemade pizza!" Winn gushed, Susan and Maggie laughing at Alex's gagging noises. 

"Your hippie chow isn't pizza!" she raged and gestured more wildly than she probably should have with her broken hand.

Maggie laughed at her, but sobered when she offered a slightly hesitant explanation to Eliza. "Lucy has taken my lactose intolerance as a personal challenge."

She was over-aware of the rocky history with the daughter Eliza remained touching, Alex taking the affection for granted in her amused ire. 

"Cheeseless pizza," Eliza sassed and sashayed away after a last caress to Alex's scalp. "The horror. At least that means there might be leftovers."

Kara gave her adopted mother a dry look when they trooped into the kitchen, but grinned as she was hugged. Bolstered with Lucy's cooking experiment and leaving the twins to sniff over what was left, the moms joined Kara and her sea of paperwork. A few questions had her rambling on about the various piles, the questions some of the papertrail had answered, and the million more questions the process had brought up. When Reba mentioned she worked as a real-estate agent and might be able to help, they were off and running. Their discussion over serious matters regarding the historical building interspersed with the steady stream of shouting and obscenities from the living room amused Eliza to no end.

"See, you have a conflict here with the housing authority and the historical building charter."

"I'm leaving your ass there! You know what? I'm switching teams just so I can shoot you when you spawn you asshole."

"But where would I even start with such extensive renovations?"

"What the fuck, Vasquez? Did you just shoot us both? I thought we were bros!"

"At least the sewer connections seem like they're still adequate. See, they were updated back in ninety-eight."

"You're dead to me, Maggie Sawyer! Christ, where the fuck did that thing come from?"

"Oh, Reba, seriously, I don't know how I ever would have gotten through some of this without your help. If you ever need a job, you tell me!"

"Look out, little brother! You're gonna get your balls shaved off!"

And, somehow, it all sounded like home.

**Author's Note:**

> So, my loyal TigerCorp fans! We come again to the end of a 'season' of this take on the Supergirl universe. But Shaaaatter, you wail at me, you can't leave it there! Well I'm not! On the heels of this will be the next installment of fluff and family and romance. Stay tuned for 'I'll Be Home For Christmas'. 
> 
> Take care, dearies.


End file.
